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ON THE

ANGLICAN AND AMERICAN-ANGLO

<*

BY JOHN BRISTED, COUNSELLOB AT LAW,
ABTHOR OP " THE RESOURCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE," AIM) OF " THE RE
SOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."

Manet alta Mente repMtum. Pirgil.
Ek t»v 6am ypaqm 6mMya/M *» Sojmriv ol ix&pol, km fu. Chrysoitmn.
Study, without prayer, is tMM-pro without .tody, ^rfigfo^

NEW-YORK:

-UBUSHED BY JOHN P. HAVEN, 182 BROADWAY ; AND BY SAMUEL I.
ARMSTRONG AND CROCKEB & BREWSTER, BOSTON.

Gray if Bunce, Printers.
1822.

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF SEW-YORK, SS.
BE IT REMEMBERED. That on the twenty-ninth da}' of August, in the forly-serenth year of
the IndMJetfttenCtfdf the UriUced States of America, John Bristed, of the said district, bath deposit
ed in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof lie claims as author, in the words follow
ing, to wit;
• THOUGHTS ON THE ANGLICAN AND AMERICAN-ANGLO CHURCHES. By John
Bristed, Counsellor at Law* Author of »' the Resources of the British Empire," and qf u the Re
sources oftfie United States of America."
Manet alta Mente repo&tum. Virgil.
Ex Tfov 0w»v ypatyw Btowyov/Aiv kslv Btkevtrtv ct v$poi, Katv f*n. Chrysostom.
Study, without prayer, is atheism— grayer, without study, is presumption. Bishop Sanderson.
In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encou
ragement of learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the Authors and
Proprietors of such Copies, during the time therein mentioned.1' And also to an act, entitled " an
Act, supplementary to an act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the
Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, lo the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times
therein mentioned, and extending theJaenefits thereof to, the arts of designing, engraving, and
etching historical and other prints." JAMES DILL,
Clerk of the Soatkern District tf Ncw-Ytrrlc.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The following pages are intended, merely, as the
herald of a more extended and minute inquiry into
the causes of the present positive and relative weak
ness and inefficiency of the Anglican and American-
Anglo-Churches ; notwithstanding their external ad
vantages, and their truly evangelical liturgy, articles,
and homilies, the precious legacy of those blessed
reformers and martyrs, who sealed the constancy
of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the pour
ing out of their own life blood.
All personal and party feelings are distinctly dis
claimed ; the only object being to exhibit the causes,
and to point out the remedy of those evils, which
have too long marred the beauty and blasted the
usefulness of two most important sections of the
Christian Church.
I was induced to examine the effects of the English
national church establishment, in consequence of
being referred, in the winter of 1821-2, to Mr.
Wilks's work on " Correlative claims and duties,"
by the editor of a most respectable, and truly evan
gelical, religious journal, published in London.
My attention was particularly directed to that por-

VI ADVERTISEMENT.
tion of Mr. Wilks's book, in which a most deplora
ble picture of the condition of religion in these
United States is drawn ; and the evil accounted for,
by the want of a church and stale establishment in this
country. JOHN BRISTED.
New-York, September, 1822.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Advertisement, v. vi.
Introduction' — Protestant episcopal church, 1. Author's fa
ttier, 1,2. Importance of pastoral duty, 3. Collegiate system,
3. Stated ministry, 4. Formalists, 3, 4. Evangelical clergy, 5,
Rev. T. Scott, 6. Public schools in England, 6. Nominal Chris
tianity, 7. Atonement, 8. Jeremy Taylor, 8. Fagging, 9. Bi
shop Huntingford, 10. Bishop Mant, 11. Winchester rebellion.
11. Pious education, 12. Church of Christ, 13. Septimus
Collinson, 15. Anglican church and state, 16. Bishop Warbur-
ton, 17. Religious proscription, 18. Test and corporation acts,
18. Church patronage, 19. Formalism, 20. Bishop-making,
21. Eleetion of bishops, 22. American bishops, 23. American-
Anglo-Church, 24. Tithes, 25. Lord Chatham, 25. British ex
penditure, 26. Irish state clergy, 27. Irish popery, 28. Irish
character, 29. State of Ireland as to popery and protestantism,
30. Simpson's plea, 31. Micaiah Towgood, 32. Messrs. Bogue
and Bennet, 33. Anglican Church, 33. Edinburgh, 34. Mr.
Alison, 35. Halyburton, 35. Study of sceptical writers, 36.
Infidelity, 37. Medical faculty, 37. United States and Britain,
38. Christian Observer, 39. Dr. Mason, 40, 41. Dr. Chalmers.
42. American lawyers, 43.
CHAPTER I.
On the Anglican Church Establishment.
Rev. S. C. Wilks. 44. Necessity of church establishment, 45.
Constantine, 45, 46. Parliament church, 47. Popish establish
ments, 48. Present English church establishment, 49. Late
queen and liturgy, 50. Secular religion, 51. State clergy not
martyrs, 52. Irish church establishment, 53. Religion in awl
out of the establishment, 54. Anglican bishops in 1760, 55. En
glish clergy, 56. Secular clergy, 57. Importance of national re-

Till CONTENTS.
ligion, 58. Latitudinarian clergy, 59. Orthodox clergy, 60.
Evangelical clergy, 62. Revivals discouraged by English church,
63. Recent episcopate, 63. Importance of dissenters, 64. On
America, 64. On true religion, 65. On social religion, 66. On
sacred literature, 67. Bodies of divinity, 68. Rev. T. Scott, 69.
Horror of Calvinism, 70. On public morals, 71. National
church character, 72. Good examples, 73. Civil liberty, 74.
Religious liberty, 75. Church evangelicals persecuted, 76. Na
tional prosperity, 77. Churchmen and dissenters, 78. The En
glish, a. persecuting church, 79. The schism bill, 80. Protest
against it, 81. Popery schemes, 82. Church catechism, 83.
Church persecution, 84. Janseriist and atheist, 85. Bishop Tom-
line, 86. American Tomlines, 87. Francis the first, 88. Cardi
nal Bellarmin, 89. George first and second, 90. George third,
91. George fourth, 92. <<. Persecuting bishops, 93. Suspended cu
rates, 94, 95. Power of bishops, 96. Rev. I. P. Jones, 97.
Counter signature, 98. Church peril, 99. Popular opinion, 100.
Intolerance, 101. Lipsius, 102. Defender of the faith, 103.
Reading sermons, 104. Unpreaching bishops, 105. Names of re
proach, 106. Joan of Kent, 106. Anabaptists, 107. Reforma
tion imperfect, 108. Protestant martyrs, 108. Formal persecut
ors, 109. Established and unestablished, 110. Arch calumniator,
111. High commission uniformity, 112. Elizabeth's injunctions,
113. Family prayer discouraged, 113. Church vestments, 114.
Puritans and baptists executed, 115. Low state clergy, 116,
Elizabeth's piety, 116. James the first, 117. Leaning to popery,
118. Hampton court conference, 119. Sunday sports, 120.
Arians burned, 121. Schemes of Laud, 122. Charles the first
123. Laud's cruelty, 124. Arminian archbishop, 125. Chief
justice Richardson, 126. Leighton, Prynne, 127. Emigrations,
128 Laud's prevarication, 129. Charles's proclamation, 130.
Seventeenth article, 131. Richard Montague, 132. Bishop Da-
venant, 133. Predestination, 134. Charles's Jesuitism, 135.
Generic formalism, 1^6. Laud whitewashed, Johnson Grant, Joan
na Southcote, 137. Infidelity, popery, 138. Ceremonial religion,
139. Burnet's character of -Laud, 140. Modern theology, 141.'
Bishop Gleig, 142. Dogmatism, 143. Party feeling, O. P. 144.
Church preferment, 145. Clarendon's apothegm, 146. Laud in
Scotland, 147. English state clergy, 148. New-York Sabbath, 149.
Church overthrow, 150. Modern formalists, 151. Compulsory
uniformity, 152. Sin of schism, 153. Presbyterian persecution,
154. State churches cruel, 155. Button breach, 156. Ejected
allowance, 157. Protestant council, 158. Stuart cruelty, 159.
James Sharp, 160. Goodwin, Cromwell, 161. Borel, Charlesj
162. Westminster Assembly, 163. Commonwealth religion, 164.'
National religion, 165. Cromwell's chaplains, 166. Baseness of
Charles, 167. Clarendon, Southampton, 168. Bartholomew Act,
169. Mistake of the Christian Observer, 170. Proportion of
Church evangelicals, 171. Sheldon, 173. Formal clergy, esta-

CONTENTS. IX
Wished, unestablished, 174. Charles's popery, 176. Patriarch of
Constantinople, 177. Present state church, 178. Secular clergy,
179. Charles's bishops, 180. Savoy conference, 181. Baxter.
Gunning, 182. Stricter conformity, 183. Foreign ordination, 184.
French Bartholomew, 185. Ejected ministers, 186. Noncon
formists, 187. Grasping state clergy, 188. Philosophical divines,
189. Infidelity, formalism, 190. Emperorof Austria, 191. Popery,
Irenicum, 192, New style of preaching, 193. Execution of Bar
tholomew act, 194. Conventicle act, 195. Five mile act, 196.
Charles's hypocrisy, 197. Making a bishop, 198. Comprehension
scheme, 199. Parker, Marvel, 200. Venal parliament, 201. Sir
John Coventry, 202. Lord Sidmouth's bill, 203. State churches,
204. English infidelity, 205. Anglican Church tendencies, 206.
Nominal Christians, 207. Samuel Shaw, 208. Books recommended,
209. Profligate court, 210. Infidelity, 211. Sabbath profanation,
212. Churchformalism,213. Fashionable theology, 214. High
and low church, 215. Doctrines of grace. 216. Revival in En
gland, 217. English state clergy, 218. Bolingbroke, Calvin, 219.
Bishop Trelawney, 220. Episcopal Declaration, 221. Church
evangelicals, 222. Church despotism, 223. Scottish episcopacy,
224. Jurants, nonjurants, 225-^their reunion, 226. Church or
der, 227. Mr. Hervey, 228. Sectarian bigotry, 229. Mr. Rob
inson, 230. Mr. Scott, Mr. Newton, 231. London religion, 232.
Protestant association, 233. Spirit of popery, 234. Church bi
gotry, 235. General profligacy, 236. Church evangelicals, 237.
Revivals, 238. Discouraged in Anglican Church, 239; andin
American-Anglo-Church, 240. Formalism, popery, 241. Revi
vals, Best Christian, 242. Church evangelism; irreligion, 243.
Irish toleration, 244. God's government 245. Newton's situa
tion, 246, Home heathenism, Moravians, 247. Prayer, missions,
248. Church order, 249. Infidelity, lay preaching, 250. Dark
ness of England, 251. Church negligence, awakenings, 252.
Growth of dissenters, 253. Politics, Catholicism, 254. Formal
preaching, 255. Proportionof church evangelicals, 256. Church
preferment, 257. Church ordination, 258. Christian Observer,
259. Bible Society, 260. Established churches, 261. Condi
tion of Ireland, 262. Irish state clergy, 263. Papal tyranny, 264.
Cure of souls, 265. Formal church preaching, 266. Infidelity,
seditibn, 267. English public schools, 268. Religious education,
269. British government, 270. Learned clergy, 271. Converted
ministry, 272. London criminals, 273. State church negligetrce,
274. State church character, 275. State church patrons, 276.
Recapitulation, 277, 278 CHAPTER II.
On the Anglican Church Establishment.
Wilks on American religion, 279. Necessity of state church,
280. British Review, 281. American religion, 282. Dr. Beecher's
b

X CONTENTS.
calculations, 283. Proportion of American clergy, 284. Their
general character, 285. Anglican clergy, 286. Theological semi
naries, 287. Other institutions, 288. Harmony, revivals, missions,
289. Progress of U. S., 290. Religious services, 291. Church
unity, 292. Exclusive churchmanship, 296. Wilberforce, Dau-
beny, 297, Sir Richard Hill, 298. Church definition, 299. An-
tijacobin Review, 300. True church, 301. Church building, 302.
Church patronage, 303. Mr. Gladstone, 305. Bishop Ryder, 306.
Best church patronage, 307. Best church treasury, 308. American
objects, 309. British pressure, 310. Salaried sinecures, 311.
Crown influence, 312 Postmaster, public opinion, 313. New-
York Church establishment, 314. Virginia Church establishment,
316. English state church, 316. Earlier methodists, 317. Ox
ford expulsion, 318. Mr. Welling. 319. Drs. Nowell and Durell,
320. Check to evangelism, 321. Sir Robert Walpole, 322. Sa
cramental test, 323. Spirit of sect, 324. Want of ordinances, 325.
Evangelizing the earth, 326. Efforts of Britain, 327. Power of
sectarianism, 328. American religion, 329. Report of General
Assembly, 330. Rational Christianity, 331. Want of ministers,
332. Religion is increasing, 333. Missions, revivals, 334. Prayer,
preaching, 335. Seamen, Princeton, 336. American sects, 337.
British religion, 338. American home mission, 339. New-Eng
land regulations, 340. The standing order, 341. Massachusetts
religion, 342. Congregational order, 343. New-England charac
ter, 344. Condition of United States, 345. American-Anglo-
Church, 346. Diocesan consolidation, 347. Parish making and
voting, 348. Primitive persecutions, 349. First state church,
350. Christianity before, 351, and after establishment, 352.
Church governments in United States, 353. American-Anglo-
Church, 354. Presbyterians, methodists, 355. Congregationalists,
356. CHAPTER III.
On the Anglican Church establishment.
English church patronage, 358. British cabinet, 359. English
church perishing, 360. Churchmen, nonconformists, 361. Head
of the .church, 362. English church notions, 363. Unestablished
ctiurch, 364. Scottish Kirk, 365. Bishops Home, Horsley, 366.
An American divine, 367. Christian church, 368. Evangelical
curates, 369. Evangelical presentees, 370. English church pa
tronage, 371. Rev. T. Scott, 372. Peterborough questions, 373.
English clergy training, 374. Foxhunting parson, 375. Evange
lical preaching, 376. Church of God, 377. English church preach
ing, 378. Ready m=ide sermons, 379. Rev. Mr. Bugg, 380. Rev.
Dr. Stuart 381. Bishop Tomline, 382. American Tomlines, 383.
Praying punished, 384. Formalism depopulates, 385. The Angli
can Church, 386. Evangelism fills it, 387. Two ends of preach
ing, 388. Retarded progress, 389. Of American-Anglo-Church,

' CONTENTS. xj
390. Clerical formalism, 391. Sabbatical indulgence, 392. Un
learned clergy, 393. American-Anglo-Church performances, 394.
Prospects of American-Anglo-Church, 395. British burdens, 396.
American feelings, sg?. No carriage horses, 398. Agricultural
distress, 399. English peasantry, 400. Game laws, 401 - eru
dition of Ireland, 402. Canning, Peel, 403. Religious disabilities,
404. State church ineffectual, 405, and formal and persecuting,
406, and weakens government, 407. Evangelism increasing 408 ;
but not owing to state church, 409, which persecutes evangelism,
410. Rev. Mr. Polwhele, 411. Mr. Wilks's position doubted, 412.
Anticipation of, 413. Future labours, 414.
CHAPTER IV.
Exclusive Churchmanship.
Popish infallibility, 415. English dissenters, 416. A popish te
net, 417. Argumentum ad modestiam, 418. Condition of sal
vation, 419. Uncovenanted mercy, 420. Dodwell nonjuror, 421.
Belief in a bishop, 422. Whitfield, 423. Episcopacy, presbytery,
424. Wandsworth presbytery, 425. Grave questions, 426. Arch
bishop Wake, 427. Rev. Samuel Wix, 428. Dissenters, papists,
429. Rev. Dr. Bowden, 430. Unchurphing, 431. National
churches, 432. Covenant-dilemma, 433. Calvinistic presbyte-
rians, 434. Mr. Wesley, 435. Calvin, Van Armin, 436. Justifi
cation by faith, 437. Formal theology, 438. General Wolfe,
churchmanship, 439. Church, visible and invisible, 440. The
true church, 441. Religious indifference, 442. Preach the gos •
pel, 443. Christianity, clergy, 444. Covenant of grace, 445.
Henry Martyn, 446. Church of Christ, 447. All sects exclusive,
448. No exclusive church, 449. Name of Christ, 450. Church
controversy, 451. Dr. How, Millennium, 452. Catholic com
munion, 45S. Formal monopolies, 454. Jewish formalists, 455.
Roman and Anglican Churches, 456. Lutherans, reformers, 457.
Bishop Ridley, 458. Christian rivalry, 459. Salvation individual,
460. Church order, 461.
CHAPTER V.
Baptismal Regeneration.
Bishop Mant, 462. Real regeneration, 463. Woman in trou
ble, 464. Matthew Mead, 465. Dead baptism, 466. Baptism,
what, 467. Modern theology, 468. Predestination, 469. Ful-
gentius, 470. Infant damnation, 471. Church declension, 472.
Waterland, Doddridge, 473. Tomline, Scott, 474. Richard Mant,
475. Simon Magus, 476. Mant's tendencies, 477. Antimoni-
anism, popery, 478. Opus operatum, 479. Transubstantiation,
480. Gallows doctrine, 481. Mant's contradictions, 482. Wa-

X» CONTENTS.
terland, Mant, 483. Justification by faith, 484. Bishop La-
vington, 485. Papists, dissenters, 486. Formal champion, 487.
Eclectic Review, 488. Falling church, 489. Formal church,
490. Radicals, evangelicals, 491. Subsequent conversion, 492.
Scott, Milner, 493. Real regeneration, 494. Lord Thurlow,
495. Worldly morality, 496. Formal Calvinists and Arminians,
497. Marks of formalism, 498. Formal priests, 499. Bishop
Kay, 500.

THOUGHTS

^ttflUcan an* &tnerCcan=&ttfllos@]&ttttf)*s.

INTRODUCTION.
Humanly speaking, I have a kind of hereditary and
family claim to be enrolled among the advocates of all
that vitally concerns the well-being of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, whether it be that established in
England, or its legitimate offspring located in these
United States.
My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were
all beneficed clergymen in the Church of England.
My elder brother is so now : and I was myself, accord
ing to the custom of men, under that national establish
ment, marked out for the clerical calling from my very
birth. It was, in truth, the dearest wish of my most
venerable father's heart, that all his sons should be de
voted to the ministry of reconciliation. For this his
prayers were ever on the wing to the Throne of Grace,
But he died without receiving a full answer to his peti
tions. His youngest son, while yet scarcely ripening
into manhood, perished in the navy ; his second boy
embraced a civil occupation ; and his eldest born, alone,
waits upon the stately steppings of Jehovah, in the
Sanctuary. What tribute of affection *and of gratitude shall 1
render unto thee, my father and my friend, my guardian
and my guide ? .
In all the stages and departments of this ever-chang
ing scene of life, my sainted sire bore his faculties
1

2 author's fatiie^.
meekly and well. As a son, he wras obedient, dutiful,
affectionate ; as a brother, kind, tender, protecting ; as
a husband, indulgent, gentle, devoted ; as a father, be
nignant, liberal, abounding in all good ; as a friend,
faithful, generous, constant ; as a public magistrate,
upright, just and pure ; as a man, high in talent, exten
sive in learning, fertile in wisdom, eloquence and wit ;
in social intercourse, the delight and joy of every one.
And above all, as a minister of the Gospel, he was sin
cere and zealous in the discharge of the duties of his
highest, holiest, best vocation ; loyal and true to his
great Master, the Captain of Salvation ; a plain, per
spicuous, powerful preacher of the doctrines of grace
to his flock ; in his parish a faithful pastor, visiting his
people from house to house, and ever administering to
their spiritual needs and earthly wants ; a most merci
ful parent to the poor and destitute. In fine, so happily
tempering the blaze of genius with the milder and more
heavenly lustre of the Christian graces, meekness, for
bearance, patience, charity, that he won the affection,
esteem, respect and reverence of all who knew him.
In early life, he distinguished himself as an accom
plished classical scholar ; he bore away, also, one of
the highest mathematical honours at Cambridge, aSr
second wrangler of his year. Fully fitted by' his ta
lents, his connexions, his acquisitions, his accomplish
ments, his fortune, to mingle with and mount in the
tumultuous intercourses and conflicts of the world, he
preferred the calm, sequestered vale of life, to all the
excitements of ambition, the seductions of pleasure, the
temptations of wealth. He held on the noiseless tenor
of his way as an humble parish priest, watching over
and labouring for the best, the everlasting interests of
a plain unlettered peasantry.
In his life he exemplified the blessed influences of
the doctrines of the Cross ; and in his death, he bore
the fullest testimony that faith, undivided faith in the
free and finished salvation, the gratuitous, unmerited,
sovereign mercy, the infinite sacrifice, the all-sufficient
righteousness, the all-prevailing intercession of the

IMPORTANCE OF PASTORAL DUTY. 3
Lord Jesus Christ, as the only foundation of present
peace and future hope, and eternal bliss ; utterly cast
ing away every reliance upon the wretched, helpless
works of human frailty and imperfection, is the alone
sure and steadfast anchor of the soul in that awful hour
of earthly dissolution, when man sinks from all that he
sees and knows, into all that lie* hidden behind the veil
of unrepealed futurity.
May 1, and mine, die the death of the righteous ; and
may our last end be like his !
The importance of a faithful and zealous parish
priest to the Church of Christ, in particular, and to the
community generally, is not sufficiently appreciated
nor understood. Some, laying too much stress upon
preaching only, and others relying too much upon mere
forms of prayer, leave parochial visitation to be per
formed or not, as inclination may direct, or opportunity
offer, or caprice dictate.
The collegiate system, still adopted by too many of
the American churches, which consists in making two
or more clergymen tenants in common of several con
gregations, precludes the power of performing regular
pastoral duty. And the formalists, who makeup ah
awfully numerous part of every Christian community,
.and are, without peradventure, the most pernicious of
all the enemies of spiritual religion, are generally apt
to think the pastoral visits of their minister quite a work
of supererogation, and to insist that a little thin, dilute!
sabbatical morality, a miserable deterioration of heathen
ethics, of the unsanctioned codes of Plato, or Epictetus,
or Seneca, is abundantly Sufficient to carry both parson
and people to heaven ; in direct contradiction to the
whole tenor of those sacred Scriptures, which they sel
dom hear, and still more seldom read.
Let it not be deemed harsh and uncharitable to say,
that formalists are enemies to spiritual religion in Chris
tian countries, and in this enlightened era of the world.
For, although civilization may alter habits, it does not
change the heart; and the experience of every day
shows, tthat men of decent exterior and punctual ob-

4 USE Of A STATED MINISTRY.
servers of all the forms and ordinances of their own
particular Church, are, as bitter persecutors, to the ex
treme extent of their power, of all evangelical piety, as
the most open and shameless profligates can be. The
natural enmity of the heart against God, and the things
of God, is as fierce and unrelenting at this moment, as
it was when the Scriptures first announced the awful
and humiliating truth.
The whole history of the Christian Church, from
the advent of the Messiah to the present hour, proves,
that without a stated ministry, and a regular perform
ance of pastoral duty, no congregation ever can be
built up in spiritual growth and holiness. A clergyman
may preach ably, pray earnestly, expound instructively,
and yet, without parochial visitation, be lamentably
deficient in feeding the flock committed to his charge.
No Christian community can be bound up and conso
lidated in its most valuable, its immortal interests,
unless the minister gives continually a sound exposition
of the Holy Scriptures, trains up the youth in the nurr
ture and admonition of the Lord, carries the law and
the Gospel home to the business and the bosoms of all his
hearers, and enforces the duty and discipline of personal
prayer and domestic worship in every family of his
flock. There are a thousand avenues of conviction to the
sinner's heart, which no public instruction from the
pulpit can reach. Innumerable difficulties to be solved,
and cases of conscience to be explained, which are too
minute and too subtle to be comprehended or touched
by any course of general ministration. The adaptation
of Scriptural truth to many particular circumstances of
individual need, can only take place in the familiar
conversation of private and friendly intercourse. The
hearts of the people are most effectually subdued by a
faithful correspondence between the pastor's practice
and the preacher's doctrine.
By pastoral vigilance and prudence only, are often to
be prevented or checked, the beginnings of those
abuses and scandals, which, when unrestrained, defy

EVANGELICAL CLERGV.

the interposition of ecclesiastical tribunals, disgrace the
Church, and injure the community. How are the
children, the rising hope of every congregation, to learn
to look up to their minister as to their spiritual father,
except, by frequent pastoral intercourse? And how is
the clergyman himself to become acquainted with ihe
actual state of his flock, their individual, their family,
their social religion and morals, if he only sees them
gathered together once in the week to listen to his pulpit
discourses ? How are the feeble to be strengthened,
the thoughtless admonished, the drooping cheered, the
hasty restrained, the poor comforted, the sick soothed,
the dying supported, but by the voice, the smile, the
tears, the prayers of their pastor; all pointing to the
one great sacrifice for sin; to faith in Christ Jesus; a
living faith, evidenced by a renewed heart and a holy
life, regulated by the commandments of God's own
revealed word?
An able and an eloquent preacher may command the
respect and admiration of his audience ; but the grati
tude, the affection, the tenderness of an attached people,
are never given, save to the conscientious, vigilant, wise
and faithful pastor.
The difference between the cold, listless formality of
those wretched flocks, who, for lack of pastoral care,
look up to their negligent shepherds, and are not fed —
and the lively, constantly growing spiritual-mindedness
of those congregations who are blessed alike with the
public labours and parochial visitations of evangelical
ministers, is immense and awful. The first, even at
the best, only add a heap of dull hypocrisy to the
huge mass of iniquity which is always festering in its
own corruption in a world that lieth in wickedness ; that
is hursting with sin and sorrow ; that drives on its un
reflecting course without God, and without Christ, and
without hope ; while the others are salient, living
springs of health and life to all the surrounding com
munity, who are checked by their reproofs, won by
their kindness, enlightened by their admonitions, im
proved by their example.

ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

If I am not deceived in that which the Holy Spirit
has pronounced to be deceitful above all things, I would
infinitely rather that a son of mine should be a faithful,
zealous, devoted parish priest, than the sovereign of an
extended empire.
The venerable Thomas Scott, not long before ho
died, said — " The work of the ministry appears to mc
so great, that nothing else, comparatively, seems worth
doing. Christ would not lead an army, nor divide an
inheritance, nor be made a king, nor sit in the great
council of the nation ; but he would preach the Gospel
to the poor."
In order to lay the basis of a liberal education, I was
sent, while yet quite a child, to Winchester college,
which then, under the auspices of its head-master, the
Reverend Dr. Joseph Warton, of classical and poetical
memory, was reputed to be one of the best of the great
public schools in England. During the year in which
I was candidate for admission, there were forty appli
cants, and only three vacancies ; but through the nomi
nation and influence of a clerical brother of Sir William
Blackstone, the celebrated commentator upon the Laws
of England, I gained admittance, as an Alumnus of St.
Mary's college, Winton.
At Winchester, as at Eton and Westminster, two
junior seminaries which derive their forms and models
of instruction from Winchester, every effort is directed
to make the boys good classical scholars ; to render
them familiar with the best writers of Greece and Rome,
and to teach them a facility of composition, both prose
and verse, in the English, Latin, and Greek languages.
But how far the formal routine of the chapel prayers
and cathedral services, repeated so often on the week
days, Saint's- days, and Sundays; the indiscriminate
admission to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper of
all the boys in the sixth form, as a matter of course,
without any previous knowledge of, or inquiry into,
their spiritual state ; together with a pretty general
negligence, on the part of the Warden, Masters and
Fellows of the college, as to the tone of morals prevail-

NOMINAL CHRISTIANITY. -i
ing among the students, is calculated to promote the
cause of religion, more especially as by far the greater
portion of the boys on the "foundation" of these dis
tinguished institutions, are regularly trained in them to
become clergymen in the Anglican Church, has long
been doubted by many of the ablest, best informed, and
most pious men in the British empire.
Some years since, the Bishop of Meath, and the Rev.
Dr. Rennell, Master of the Temple, very forcibly stated
to the public their objections, not merely to the total
absence of all evangelical instruction in these great
seminaries ; but also to their perpetual tendency to
promote irreligion and immorality. They were an
swered in an able and temperate manner by Dr. Vin
cent, Dean of Westminster, author of the Voyage of
Nearchus, and at that time head-master of Westminster
school. The more serious part of the people of Eng
land, of every religious denomination, are convinced,
that the objections of the Irish Prelate and the English
Master of the Temple, in relation to the neglect of re
ligious and moral instruction in the great public schools
of England, have not been sufficiently refuted.
On this momentous subject, embracing the course
and conduct of so large a portion of the English national
elergy, the reader will find much to interest and instruct
him, in the Christian Observer for 1811. In review
ing Dr. Ireland;s " Lectures on Paganism and Chris
tianity Compared," to the King's scholars at Westmin
ster, high praise is bestowed on the talents and learning
of the reverend author, whose work is ranked with
Leland's valuable treatise on the necessity and import
ance of a Divine revelation ; and with Brucker's ela
borate History of Philosophy ; or, at least, with Dr.
Enfield's able abridgement of that voluminous work.
The Christian Observer, however, as becotnes the
faithful champion of evangelical truth, remarks, that,
throughout these lectures, this delusive and dangerous
error seems to be implied, that the mere speculative con
viction of the truth of Christianity, and the bare pro
fession of it, are all that is required; — or rather, that

O MISTAKEN ATONEMENT.
every nominal is a real Christian. By this want of
discrimination between real and nominal Christians,
between the bare profession and the practical feeling of
the Gospel, which is of the very essence of formalism,
a delusive satisfaction is produced in those accustomed
to hear religion thus imperfectly represented, which
seldom fails to render them zealous for the form, and
careless of the power of godliness.
In the same volume of the Christian Observer a cor
respondent calls our attention to another religious pub
lication, intended to edify the same class of young men.
Itis entitled " Sacred Exercises, in four books, for the use
of places of education, particularly Westminster school."
The prayers and collects of this manual of devotion
exhibit a strange medley ; and it is not easy to say on
what system of divinity the whole is founded ; some
things appearing orthodox, others the reverse. For in
stance — " Let us, after the example of Peter, labour,
most abundantly, to make atonement for our sins."
Ought the Westminster, or any other scholars, to be
taught such doctrine as this ? Let Dr. Ireland, or any
other dignitary of the Anglican Church, answer. Yet
such theology must be in good odour among the Eng
lish public schools ; for these " Sacred Exercises" had
actually reached a sixth edition, so long since as the
year 1792.
Such imscriptural doctrine, however, sometimes re
ceives the authority of a much higher order of divines
than the dismal compiler of this Westminster manual ;
for Bishop Jeremy Taylor himself talks of " our sighs
atoning for our little sins, and our tears washing away
our greater sins." And a strong squint towards this
tenet is betrayed in the thirteenth hymn, appended by
the authority of the General Convention of the Ameri
can-Anglo-Church, to David's Psalms in the Common
Prayer Book. The title of the hymn is " the Chris
tian's Hope ;" it contains these lines ; —
" But thou hast told the troubled miuds
Who does her sins lament ;
The timely tribute of her tears
Shall endless wo prevent."

WINCHESTER COLLEGE. 9
All which is in direct opposition to the evangelical
doctrines of plenary atonement, and free salvation,
made and effected by Christ himself.
In the Christian Observer for 1820, a correspond
ent notices the deplorable deficiency of religious in
struction in the English public schools. He allows,
that the perusal of the classic authors of antiquity
tends to enlarge the ideas, and to form a correct
style ; but insists, that youth need to have pointed
out to them the improprieties of the heathen system,
and the infinite superiority of the Christian revela
tion ; objects acknowledged to be of primary im
portance by Dean Vincent, in his well known pam
phlet. It is right to inform the pupils, that heathen
writers are not the models on which their characters,
as men and Christians, must be formed ; and that,
though classical literature may furnish the under
standing, or form the taste, it will neither regulate
the affections, nor improve the conduct.
But what direct religious instruction is afforded in
these public schools ? Young men, generally, leave
them with very imperfect notions even of the first
principles of Christianity. Children, in the national
and Sunday schools, are, for the most part, better
grounded in the elements of revelation, than these
embryo bishops, judges, and statesmen. Youth is
the most favourable season for inculcating religious
principles ; and if this important duty were per
formed in the great schools, the Anglican Church
would exhibit a far greater number of true friends;
of men exhibiting that they have religion really at
heart, and pulling down the strong holds of dissent
by the resistless warfare of a pure, evangelical faith,
and a holy, consistent life.
Fagging, or shagging, .as it is called at Winches
ter, is a system of slave trade, and corrupts the
heart, by sowing in it the seeds of tyranny and ser
vility; two poisonous plants, extremely adverse to
the growth of the Christian religion.
The habits formed in the public schools, are car-
.'.,« : • * , 2

10 BISHOP HUNTINGFORD.
ried to the universities, whose discipline they generally
render ineffectual. Indeed, the foundation-scholars,
who speed, receive an ample provision, independently
of their conduct at Oxford or Cambridge, or their ap-
pJicationto study, Presently these men enter the esta-
tablished church, which is thus, as well as by other
means, constantly supplied with a shoal of secular, self-
indulgent, formal clergy, whose religion consists main
ly in railing at dissenters, and in calumniating and per
secuting all evangelism within the pale of the hierarchy.
. I had been at Winchester but little more than three
years, and had ascended from the lowest class up to
nearly the head of the senior part of the fifth form,
when a general rebellion against the severe and capri
cious authority of Dr. Huntingford, then only Warden,
now both Warden of Winchester college, and bishop of
Hereford, broke out among the gownsmen, or students,
on William of Wykeham's foundation. This rebellion
was headed, and the oath of universal conspiracy ad
ministered, by Richard Mant, then one of the prefects
in the sixth form, and now a protestant champion of the
popish doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and one of
the editors of Mant & Doyley's Family Bible.
In order to set an example of vigorous discipline, the
Warden and Fellows of Winchester, after an express
pledge on their part to bury the whole under an act of
general amnesty, expelled the first forty boys who
stood senior on the college rolls. Although much too
young, and somewhat too small, at that time, to render
any very efficient aid in a riot which proceeded so far
as to lock up the Warden, Masters and Fellows in their
own respective apartments ; to expel the cooks, but
lers, porters, bell-ringers, and other servants from their
habitations ; to shut the college-gates, mount the watch-
towers, and defy the Marquis of Buckingham's militia,
drawn out and paraded to terrify the insurgents • I yet
participated in this paternal benediction; my' name
happening to stand the twenty-first on the roll, from
that of the head-boy, who was then prefect of the hall.
Dr. Huntingford is said to have written, in the tru»

BISHOP MANT. Il
spirit Of primitive Christianity, a circular to the headk
of houses in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge,
containing the names of those boys whom he had ex
pelled from Winchester, and requestihg that not one of
them might be admitted as a student in any English
college. This benevolent request, breathing perpetual perdi
tion against youthful offenders, who had been already
punished to the extremest verge of scholastic vengeance,
in the loss of the large sums expended in their educa
tion, and in the being shut out, for ever, from all parti
cipation in the prospective emoluments and honours
attached to one of the wealthiest and most ancient in
stitutions in England, was, in general, disregarded by
the Cambridge and Oxford dignitaries, who permitted
the ejected alumni of Saint Mary Wintori to matricu*
late with them.
Of these, one, at least, has lived to Seat himself upon
the same Episcopal bench with my lord of Herefordi
His old friend Richard Mant, who led the Winchester
rebellion, has been recently transmuted into an Irish
bishop by the British government. This divine has
atoned for all the sins of youth, his defiance of Warden
Huntingford's authority, as well as some other errors,
by the parturition of a pamphlet, announcing the rege
neration of all children episcopally baptized; leaving,
as a matter of course, the rest of the human race to the
" uncovenhnted mercies" of Archdeacon Daubeny.
Whatever might be the effect upon others, certain it
is, that the serious impressions caused by the religious
education given by my revered parents to all their
children, Were very considerably diminished in me.
The daily study of the Scriptures, so fervently and so
frequently enjoined upon me by my sainted father, had
been grievously intermitted ; and the poets, orators,
and historians of Greece and Rome had shouldered out
the Oracles of God. A few years of residence under
the parental roof, aided by the kindness, vigilance and
wisdom of my unequalled sire, served to restore the
equilibrium between sacred and profane studies. Until

12 PIOUS EDUCATION.
I was seventeen, my steps were steadily directed to
wards an entrance into the vestibule of the Church of
England. Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days
shalt thou find it, is a direct encouragement to pious
parents to breed Up their, children religiously ; to train
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ;
seeing also, that the blessing is promised to believers
and to their seed.
The excellent and eminent Dr. Doddridge, in his
very interesting account of Col. Gardiner, says, that
" the colonel's mother took care to instruct him, with
great tenderness and affection, in the principles of true1
Christianity. And, although the good effects of her
prudent and exemplary care were not so conspicuous as
she wished and hoped, in the younger part of her son's
life ; yet there is great reason to believe they were not
entirely lost. As they were, probably, the occasion of
many convictions, which, in his younger years, were
overborne ; so, I doubt not, that when religious im
pressions took that strong hold of his heart, which they
afterwards did, that stock of knowledge which had
been so early laid up in his mind, was found of consi
derable service. And I have heard him make the ob
servation, as an encouragement to parents and other
pious friends to do their duty ; and to hope for those
good consequences of it, which may not immediately
appear." * =
Train up a child in the way he should go — says So
lomon, speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—
and when he is old he will not depart from it. It is an
important fact, that the Church of Christ is mainly sup
plied from the families of believers. In some few
instances, to be sure, the children of pious parents, in
spite of a religious education, turn out profligates, to
the great scandal of religion, and the vehement delight
of infidels. But this very fact proves the benefit of a
pious education ; for the clamour raised when any one
so educated becomes profligate, shows the inconsistency
of the result with the premises, and that a conclusion

CHURCH OF CHRIST.

13

quite the reverse was expected ; whereas the prpfligacy
of infidels, and, of irreligious worldlings, creates no
surprise ; because it is the natural fruit, the legitimate
consequence of their principles.
: Occasionally, also, some individuals, are taken from
out of the world which lieth in wickedness, arrested in
their career of sin, plucked as brands from the burning,
and turned from the error of their ways unto the wisdom
of the just ; exhibiting, in themselves,, signal evidences
of the sovereignty of Divine grace. This was empha
tically displayed in the remarkable, conversions of CoL
Gardiner, of the late John Newton, and of the illus
trious Missionary, Vanderkemp.
But, generally speaking, the great body of pious
people, all over the world, consists of those who have
been brought up from the earliest infancy in habits of
seriousness ; in the constant use of the appointed means
of grace ; as the daily study of the Scriptures, with
prayer for the promised teachings of the, Spirit, in order
rightly to understand, apply and practise their precepts ;
the conscientious exercise of private, family and social
prayer ; regular attendance upon the services of the
Sanctuary; — in a word, the habitual use of all the
means of grace, enjoined by Jehovah upon his people,
as a duty ; and upon the faithful use of which he has
» promised his blessing.
., At all events, it behooves those parents and guardians,
who hope to give a good account of their important
stewardship at that great and awful day, when the Al
mighty Judge of the, quick and the dead shall assign to
each individual of the assembled universe his eternal
and irreversible portion, conscientiously to discharge
their duty j and impart to the children committed to
their care, the inestimable privilege of a religious edu
cation ; and having done that, to leave the event to
God, in whose hands alone are the, issues of life and
death. Mr." Biddulph, in his " Inconsistency of conformity
to this world with a profession of Christianity,?' says —
whether the consciences of many professing parents are

14 PARENTAL AUTHORITY.
free from the guilt incurred by Eli, must be left to the
determination of the individuals concerned in theinquiry.
Power is lodged in the hands of parents by the great Lord
of all, to be employed, like every other talent, to the glo
ry of God, and the advantage of those committed to their
care. In this day, neither parents nor children seem duly
sensible of the extent of parental authority; of the awful
responsibility of the parent, respecting its exercise, nor
of the obedience due to it by the child. The reins of
domestic discipline are held too slightly, and too early
are given up, even in professing families.
These considerations involve one of the crying sins
prevalent in the religious world at this era, and threaten
the most fatal consequences to society, and to the
Church of God. Whether many Christian parents,
whose children are irreligious or profligate, may not be
implicated in their children's guilt, by the defect of
early restraint and instruction, is a solemn question.
The word of God has laid down a general rule on this
subject, in which, though there may be exceptions, as
in other general rules, something must be implied.
On the story of Eli, Mr. Scott, in his Commentary,
says, the neglect of properly educating children, and
the indulgence of their wayward inclinations, is a sin,
which God severely chastises in his own people ; be
cause it seems to imply a contempt of His authority
and special favour, and a disregard to His glory, as
well as to their immortal souls ; and because it tends
to the most fatal abuses and apostacies. ¦.*,
Mr. Simeon, in his fifty-fifth Homily, says, that
tinder the Law, on all the different occasions, it was
appointed that children should make inquiries into the
reasons of the various institutions which they saw ; and
that such explanations should be given them, as should
tend to perpetuate divine knowledge to the remotest
generations. Such inquiries we should encourage
amongst our children, and cheerfully embrace every
opportunity of instructing them in the things belonging
to their eternal peace. If such catechetical instructions
were given in our different families, to how much

ENGLISH ESTABLISHMENT. 15
greater advantage would the Word of Life be dis
pensed ? Our hearers then, being habituated to the
consideration of Divine truths, would enter more easily
into the various subjects set before them. They wpuld
attend with pleasure and profit, more especially when
arrived at years of discretion ; whereas now, the greater
part of our auditories hear as if they heard not, and
continue years under the ministry of the Gospel, without
ever understanding its fundamental truths.
At the age of seventeen, in several conversations with
the Rev. Dr. Septimus Collinson, Provost of Queen's
College, Oxford, my resolution as to taking orders was
considerably shaken. The main substance of the
learned Provost's arguments, in order to dissuade me
from entering the Church, was, that as all the livings
in the establishment were under the control of patron
age, public or private ; either ministerial, as represent
ing the government, or lay, as belonging to individual
noblemen and gentlemen ; or, clerical, as vested in sin
gle bishops or in religious bodies ; a man's location or
ascent in the national Church did not depend exclu
sively, or chiefly, or probably, at all, upon his own ta
lents, learning and character ; but upon some extrinsic
influence, some remote contingencies and probabilities,
over which he had no control.
In addition to which, he represented the clerical mar
ket in England as being overstocked ; the number of
?parishes and church benefices bearing no reasonable
proportion to the multitudes of the national clergy.
Whence, he concluded, that either of the other learned
professions, whether law or physic, would be prefer
able for a young man to pursue, as rendering him in a
greater degree the master and carver out of his own
fortunes. All these, and other similar observations, to be sure,
bore only a secular aspect, and had nothing to do with
preaching the Gospel, either to the poor or to the rich ;
yet, falling from the lips of a clergyman high in the es
tablishment, advanced in years, and distinguished for
his talents and learning, made a deep and lasting im-

16 CHURCH AND STATE.
pression upon my unexperienced, unballasted mind;
and induced me to relinquish all thoughts of the church,
and embrace the calling of a physician.
My ever to be revered father was exceedingly grieved
at this determination, but did not oppose it, because he
thought, most justlv, that the fact of my pausing as to
a preference of any other vocation, was full proof of
my unfitness to enter upon the ministry of reconcilia
tion. His prayers and tears, however, were, to the last
hour of his lengthened life, continually rising up before
Jehovah's awful throne, that his wilful boy might yet
be brought, by the blessed influences of the Spirit of
God, to see and feel the infinite superiority of faithfully
proclaiming the doctrines of the cross to any mere
worldly vocation. And he solemly enjoined me, in
whatever calling I might finally settle down, and where
soever I might be ultimately situated, to set apart some
portion of every day for the study of the Scriptures!
and commentaries, and systems of divinity, and books,
in any way calculated to explain or illustrate the Word/
of God.
My objections to the Church of England were then,
and are now, confined exclusively to her political posi
tion ; her close alliance with the state ; her system of
patronage, whether lay or clerical, excluding the con
gregations altogether from any choice of the clerk, who
is to minister to them spiritually ; and her provisionj of
tithes. Her liturgy, articles, and homilies, are all
strictly scriptural; and when faithfully set forth, and,
supported by the preaching and living of evangelical
clergymen, are eminently calculated, under the gracious
influences of the Holy Spirit, to call men from dark
ness into light, and from the power of Satan unto God.
My kingdom is not of this world, emphatically de
clares the Lord Jesus Christ. But bishop Warburton,
with all his immense talents and exhaustless ingenuity,
urges the position, that the Church and the State, in
England, are, in themselves, two free and independent
sovereigns, and as such, form a mutual, equal alliance
and league between each other ; in the same manner as

BISHOP WARBURTON. 17
is, or might be, done between any two other earthly
potentates. But, without encountering any detail, we may simply
ask, who is the head of this independent, sovereign
church ? The Lord Jesus Christ himself. And does
He enter into an equal, mutual alliance, offensive and
defensive, with impious, irreligious, profligate, formal
sovereigns ? for example, with the brutal, bloody Henry
— ;the politic, arbitrary Elizabeth ; or the perfidious
persecuting dynasty of the Stuarts ? Utrum horum ma
vis, accipe. Which will ye believe ? < The Saviour him
self, who says his kingdom is not of this work!, or the
right reverend William Warburton, who seeks to stamp
the secular stain upon its beauty of holiness ?
In addition to this,, the political wisdom of excluding
^ every other religious denomination, except the domi-
g|ant.4sect, from an equal participation in the rights,
privileges and offices of government, is more than
pdoubtful. This policy proscribes, and thus renders
™flP,eless, if not hostile, at least one-third of the talent,
"Barning, piety and efficiency of the whole empire.
Mr. Bates, a loyal adherent to the British government,
and a sound churchman withal, in his valuable work*
called " Christian Politics," recommends, that,8 white
the Anglican church should be protected in all her pre
sent emoluments, benefices and dignities, the partition
Wail between her and the other denominations should
if ^ so far thrown down, as to admit every religious per
suasion, throughout the empire, to an equal share in
the offices of government, whether civil or military ;
giving to all the citizens equal political rights and pri
vileges, and allowing to the national church the exclu
sive enjoyment of her revenues and ecclesiastical pre
rogatives- It is not easy to find a valid reason why Britain
should not repeal her Test and Corporation acts ; laws
passed amidst the heat and smoke of religious intole
rance and. persecution. She has already done it, with
signal success, in relation to her Irish protestant dis-
• 3

18 RELIGIOUS PROSCRIPTION.
sentefs. And why not extend the boon to all the
dissenting sects throughout the nation ; and thus, in
definitely, augment her own intellectual and moral
power, by permitting; all, instead of only a privileged
order of her people, "to serve, aid and support her, to
the full extent of their capacity and powers, in her civil
and military functions ; in the field and on the flood ;
in foreign courts, and in her home councils and cabinet?
Other countries have learned this lesson of practical
political wisdom. In these United States, every reli
gious communion is placed on equal ground, as to all
civil rights and privileges. By a provision of the fede
ral constitution, the general government is interdicted
from regulating or interfering with the religion of the
Union ; and the separate states, for the most part, have
confined their legislative enactments to the mere civjj
incorporation, with certain restrictions, of such religioi
bodies as apply for charters. In the United Nether
lands, in Prussia, in Russia, nay, even in France, therl
is no exclusive national church, shutting out the othjer
sects from equal political privileges ; but in those coun^
tries all religious denominations stand on the same level
of social claim and right.
During the time when Russia broke down the mili
tary strength of revolutionary France, the commander
in chief of all her armies belonged to the communion
of the Greek Church ; her minister of finance was a
protestant, and her premier, a papist. Her affairs, ci#
and military, were not the worse conducted, in her
agonizing struggle for existence, because she disfran
chises none of. her people of their political rights, on
account of their religious opinions or belief.
But the ministerial and lay patronage of the Anglican
Church is subject to a much higher and more awful
objection than the mere want of political wisdom, in
Shutting out, for ever, so much talent, learning and
efficiency from the service of the state. It almost of
necessity ensures a constant supply of formalism, at
least, if not of absolute irreligion, to the clerical esta
blishment.

CHURCH PATRONAGE. *J9
Under this national system, boys are regularly bred,
up to the Church, as to. any secular calling; for in
stance, the army, or navy, or law, or physic, or mer
chandize ; and are thus continually thrust into the
priest's office for a morsel of bread, in defiance of the
denunciations of Scripture. If a father, or uncie, or
more distant relation, or friend, or acquaintance, or the
government, have a valuable living, well endowed
with ample tithes, to dispose of, the fortunate cleric
for whom it is designed is forthwith inducted, witiiout
the shadow of. an inquiry into his fitness for so sacred,
so momentous a charge, as that of professing to minis
ter to the spiritual wants of perishing sinners. His
piety, talents, learning, industry and aptness for pulpit
exercises and pastoral duty, are ajl taken for granted;
and a whole congregation of immortal souls are trans
ferred, like so many cattle,' to the ghostly care of a man,
/who probably never has seen, nor ever intends to see
them ; but consigns them and their everlasting interests
to the supervision of some under-paid curate.
Suppose, what has happened in English history, that
the British Prime Minister, and the Lord High Chan
cellor of England, who share between them the whole
enormous church patronage of the crown, including
the making of bishops, should be both, or either of
them, avowed infidels, or merely irreligious, secular
and formal  — . What sort of bishops would be
appointed to fill the vacant sees ? What kind of clergy
to possess the empty parishes ? Evangelical men, think
you, imitators and followers of the holy Apostles, and
primitive pastors, or smooth, courtly, pliant politicians?
arid careless, irreligious, immoral clerks ?
The individual lay-patrons, also, whether noble or
gentle, put into the livings in their gift, either gratuir
tously pr by open sale in the market, as of any other
estates, the sale of church-livings being advertised in
the English newspapers as the sales of negro slaves are
advertised in our American journals, pastors of their
own choice or price. In the election, or call of these
pastors, the people composing the congregation have

20 FORMALISM AND INFIDELITY.
neither voice, nor part, nor lot ; but, nevertheless, are
required to pay them tithes, and sit, either under their
ministration, or that of some stipendiary substitute.
Waiving, for the present, all remark about the bar
ter and sale of church-livings, and the patronage of
bishops, and other clerical corporations, which must
ever bear the hue and colouring, religious 6r irreligious,
of the patron's own sentiments ; let us advert, for a
moment, to the regular and ordinary course of lay-pa
tronage. If the lay-patron be not religious himself, and it is no
want of charity to suppose that" some of them steer quite
clear of all evangelism, the probability is that the in
cumbent, placed in a living by him, will, also, not be
too well acquainted with, nor be very deeply interested
in, the propagation of the all-important truths and doc
trines involved in the stupendous scheme of human re
demption, as revealed in Holy Writ. And perhaps few
things are better calculated to foster the growth of infi
delity, and its inseparable adjuncts, discontent, radicalism
and rebellion, in a country, than the foisting jinto any
church, but more especially into a national establishment,
men who dole out only a little thin, diluted, unsubstan
tial morality, once in seven days, made up of shreds and
patches from mere ethical writers, whether ancient or
modern ; instead of regularly expounding the great
statute-book of Christianity, and habitually inculcating
the essential, the characteristic, the distinguishing doc
trines and practical duties of the everlasting Gospel.
And yet, while so large a proportion of the English
national clergy are now, and have been for several ge
nerations past, starving their flocks upon the husks of
formalism, grave personages of all ages and ; aspects,
profess to marvel at the rapid decline and diminution of
the national church, and the portentous growth of other
religious denominations, whose pastors, on moderate
stipends, perform faithfully and successfully, the all-
important duties of the highest, holiest, most interest
ing, most useful vocation that can be accorded to man.
To which add the awful increase of seditious and

BISHOP-MAKING.

21

revolutionary movements among the irreligious part of
the population, which frequent no place of worship,
but by law belong to the establishment, which claims
all not openly dissenting. It is simply impossible that
such numerous hordes of radical banditti could be found
to infest the peace and threaten the existence of all that
is valuable in England, if the eleven thousand national
clergy performed their duty, as it behooves evangelical
ministers, who are faithful stewards of the mysteries
of godliness, committed to their care.
The power vested in the crown of appointing all the
bishops in the Church of England by the writ of conge
oV eslire, or leave to choose, transmitted to the dean
and chapter upon every episcopal vacancy, is, perhaps,
still more objectionable ; hecause it in effect vests in
the existing cabinet ministers the creation of all those,
who ought to be the evangelical guardians^ of their re
spective dioceses. How far men, so deeply immersed
in mere political occupations and secular pursuits, as
the cabinet ministers of England must always be, are
fitted to select those best qualified to discharge the mo
mentous spiritual duties of the episcopate, needs no
discussion. That they do not always stumble upon
men remarkable for their attachment to the truths and
doctrines of the Bible, and of the liturgy, articles and
homilies of the Anglican church, is manifest from their
having made so many baptismal regeneration doctors,
and double justification, arid captious, sophistical ques
tion men, bishops of a protestant establishment.
The very preamble to the act of parliament, passed
in the year 1786, under which the American bishops,
Provost and White, were consecrated in England,
showsjhow completely the election arid consecration of
English bishops are under the control of the crown.
The preamble begins thus — "Whereas by the laws of
this realm, no person can be consecrated to the office of
a bishop, toithout the king's license for his ejection to
that office, and the royal mandate, under the great seal,
for his confirmation and consecration," &c.

22 . ELECTION OF BISHOPS.
" If I am prejudiced at all — says Mr, Granville Sharp,
in his ' Law of Retribution' — I am sure it is in favour
of episcopacy ; for I not only entertain a most sincere per
sonal respect and esteem for several truly worthy and
learned individuals of that order now living, but I am
even descended from one of the same holy function, (his
grandfather, archbishop Sharp,) who, in his corres
pondence with foreign protestant Churches, very ably
defended and promoted the establishment of episcopa
cy ; and above all, I am thoroughly convinced by the
Holy Scriptures, that the institution of that order in
the Christian Church is of God ; and that the only de
fect in the English Establishment of it, is the want of
a free election to the office.
"For as it may be proved, thai the Churches of Bri
tain and Ireland have a just and ancient right to elect
their own bishops, and dirl actually exercise that rightfor
many ages, till the antichristian usurpation of monks
and popes, over the secular or parochial clergy, occa
sioned the interference of kings ; so it may be as clear
ly demonstrated, that the present mode of election, by
writ, of conge d' eslire, sent to the several cathedral
chapters, together with a letter missive, containing the
name of the person which they shall elect and choose,
agreeable to the act of 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20. s. 4. is a
total perversion of that just and ancient right above-
mentioned, and is entirely destructive of all the desira
ble purposes of a free election.
" This practice, however, cannot be censured in
stronger terms than those in which it is expressly con
demned by a subsequent act of parliament, 1 Ed. VI.
c. 2. — though the former act is supposed to be still in
force — viz: 'the said elections be, in very deed, no
elections, but only by a writ of conge d' esjire, have
colours, shadows and pretences of elections^ serving,
nevertheless, to no purpose,' &c.
" If ithad not been for this notorious defect in point
of election, and the general idea of its consequences,
\ am persuaded that the late worthy primate of England

AMERICAN BISHOPS. ZO
would not have found such opposition in his endeavours,
some few years ago, to promote the establishment of
episcopacy in America."
What this opposition to which Mr. Sharp alludes
was, and what difficulties stood in the way of establish
ing bishops in this country, are minutely detailed by
bishop White, in his " Memoirs of the Protestant Epis
copal Church in the United States of America."
in a long note, subjoined to the observations above
cited, Mr.- Sharp exhibit's much learned lore in ecclesi
astical antiquities and history, to prove that election was,
in the primitive times of Christianity, the usual mode of
elevation to the episcopal chair, throughout all Christ
endom; and that this election was made promiscuously
by the laity, as well as by the clergy. But, afterwards,
emperors, and kings, and popes, a most evangelical
triumvirate, invaded the freedom of election, and usurpr
ed to themselves the power of appointing bishops, on
their sole unresponsible authority ; first excluding the
laity, arid then ousting the clergy from any share in the
superseded elections.
By the fourth article of the constitution of the Ame
rican-Anglo-Church, it is enacted, that the bishop, or
bishops, in every state, shall be chosen agreeably to such
rules as shall be fixed by the Convention, which con
sists of both laity and clergy, of that state. And the
second canon ordains, that no diocese or state shall pro
ceed to the election or appointment of a bishop, unless
there be, at least, six officiating presbyters, or priests,
residing therein, and who, agreeably to the canons of
the Church, may be qualified to vote for a bishop; a
majority of whom, at least, shall concur in such elec
tion.' mP*-'
At present there are nine bishops in the American-
Anglo-Church, to wit, of the eastern diocese, including
the states of Maine, New-Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Vermont, and Rhode-Island ; of the states, respective
ly, of Connecticut, New-York, New- Jersey, Pennsyl
vania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio.
There are two dioceses, the state of Delaware, and the

24 AMERICAN-ANGLO-CHURCH. ;
state of North Carolina, which have no bishops. Eve
ry state in the Union may become a diocese whenever
its protestant episcopalians are sufficiently numerous,
and deem it expedient.
The whole Church is governed by the General Con
vention, whose power pervades every diocese. It sits
regularly once in three years ; but may be specially con
vened in the interval. It consists of an upper house,
composed of all the existing bishops; and of a lower
house, containing a delegated portion of clergy and
laity from each diocese. The state conventions are held,
for the most part, annually in each diocese, and consist
of clergy and lay-delegates from every separate con
gregation. These bodies legislate for their respective
dioceses; but their canons must not contradict the con
stitution of the general Church.
The liturgy, articles, and homilies of the Anglican
Church are adopted, with some few slight, local altera
tions. No particular revenues are attached to the epis
copate ; and the bishops, generally, are parish priests,
in addition to their bishoprics. But efforts are making
in several dioceses to raise a bishop's fund, in order to
disengage the diocesan from parochial duty, and leave
him at leisure to perform the services that are deemed
more peculiarly episcopal. Archbishops there are none,
nor prebendaries, nor deans, nor archdeacons, nor
a long list of et ceteras to be found in the Anglican
Church ; the only orders are three, bishops, presbyters,
and deacons. The senior bishop presides in the house
of bishops, during the session of the General Conven
tion. The parish priests are elected, according to the char
ters of the congregations. Some Churches choose
their minister by the vestry, consisting of persons elect
ed annually by the pew-holders. Others by ballot, ihe
Whole .congregation voting. The bishops have no di- ,
reet patronage— no livings in their gift. The clergy
are settled by the choice or call of the people to whom
they minister ; and the stipend is fixed by compact be
tween the pastor and the congregation ; and the com-

CHURCH TITHES. 25
mon law enforces the fulfilment of this contract on both
sides, whence all undue dependence of the clergy on
the people is prevented.
The system of tithes in England, is, perhaps, the
very worst possible mode of providing for the national
clergy that could be devised. They impede the pro
gress of agriculture, and create and keep alive perpetual
dissentions between the parish priest and his own peo
ple ; and maintain in a state of incessant exasperation
all those other sects, who dissent from the doctrines or
discipline of episcopacy.
The tithes take a tenth part of all the gross produce
of the land, and consequently operate as a tax, oppres
sive in proportion to the amount of capital expended in
cultivating, and not to the net profits of the produce of
the land ; whence they grow more and more grievous,
as a country expends more and more capital in agricul
ture ; and inflict a much greater proportional burden
upon England now, when so vast an aggregate of farm
ing capital is employed in that country, than when
agriculture consisted chiefly in pasture, and little money
was expended in culture or tillage.
The tithe system, in England, is almost as pernicious
a pressure as the poor laws, the public debt, or the
game laws ; all of which are, in their nature and amount,
singularly oppressive ; and two of them tend directly to
produce immorality, vice and crime. The tithes, in
conjunction with the other property of the united An
glican and Hibernian churches, amount to an annual
income of about ten millions sterling, nearly forty-five
millions of dollars, equal to nearly one-fourth of the
rental of England and Ireland. A state of things, in
relation to ecclesiastical matters, not very Widely differ
ing from that represented by lord Chatham, as taking
place prior to the Reformation : — " this country, 'my
lords, was at that time thus parcelled out ; the king had
a third of the land for his share; another third was
divided among the barons ; and the church", God bless
it ! took the remaining third to itself."
4 .

26 BRITISH EXPENDITURE.
To the yearly revenues of the national church add
eight millions sterling for poor rates, thirty-seven mil
lions for the interest of the public debt, redeemed and
unredeemed, and seventeen millions for government ex
penditure, amounting altogether to seventy-two millions
of pounds sterling—about three .hundred and fifty mil
lions of dollars a year — averaging nearly eighteen dol
lars a head of public contribution, or tax, for each
inhabitant of the British isles. In this estimate, the tax
irnposed by the corn laws of England, calculated at
twenty-five millions sterling a year, is not included.
The only sure means of inducing the English people
to bear such, or any other burdens patiently and cheer
fully, is to diffuse evangelical truth and light among
them ; by which they will learn to see and to practise,
alike their duty towards God and towards man. The
prevalence of formalism in their churches, long conti
nued, will infallibly produce a prevalence of irreligion,
and discontent, and rebellion, which must eventually
shatter to their foundations the united fabrics of church
and state.
The tithe system, in Ireland, is still more oppressive
than in England. Four-fifths of the population are
papists ; in many parishes all the people are Romanists,
having no protestant minister residing among them;
but the nominal parson, the incumbent, lives either in
England or in France, or elsewhere, as suits his own
convenience or inclination ; and the tithe-proctor, in
terrible unison with the middle man and the popish
priest, grinds down the Irish farmer and peasant to the
dust, and perpetuates their abject, hopeless poverty.
A very sensible and gentlemanly pamphlet, on the
education of the peasantry of Ireland, apparently writ
ten by an Irishman, thoroughly attached to the British
constitution and government, has been lately published.
After exhibiting a spirited contrast between the condi
tion of England and Scotland and that of Ireland, the
author expressly charges, that of the two burdensome
ecclesiastical establishments, one imparts little, the

IRISH STATE-CLERGY. 27
other no instruction to the mass of the Irish people.
Of course, it is the business of the popish priesthood
not to instruct the people ; and they do that part of
their business most effectually.
The established protestant church in Ireland derives
immense revenues frqni- t«he whole population of the
country, withdut distinftiqn of sects, in the shape of
tithes and other sources of income ; but, avowedly, con
fines its instruction to a very small portion of the peo
ple. The author entertains but little hope of proselyt
ing Irish papists, while the existing discouragements of
the law continue to support the system of the Roman
church. Let a wise system of policy abolish all poli
tical distinctions among the different religious sects in
Ireland, and let the national clergy preach the Gospel
faithfully, and no fear need be entertained but that real,
evangelical protestantism, will make rapid and effectual
headway in that hitherto benighted country.
The writer remarks, that in England there is no na
tional clergyman without some congregation ; but in
Ireland, many of the established clergy have no con
gregation whatever ; whence a character, merely secu
lar, is impressed upon ^hem, and they are, in effect,
little else than decent country gentlemen, acting as jus-,
tices of the peace, attending upon quarter-sessions,
and county meetings, and living, in fact, like decorous
laymen. Nay, it is stated, that sometimes these pro
testant clergymen " accumulate the incongruous ho
nours, the splendid arrayment,»the scarlet and the gold,
and the glittering steel of a yeomanry captain." We
really think that this is pushing the church-militant a
little too far.
It is superfluous to ask, if such a clerical system, pro
ceeding thus, is likely to aid the cause of the protestant
church, or evangelize papists ?
?• The writer states, that not only no relation subsists
between the popish population and the established
clergy, but that even the protestant peasantry have lit
tle or no intercourse with them, as pastors ; so alien%
from all clerical qualities and attributes are these ec-

28 IRISH POFERYi
clesiastical soldiers and magistrates. In some of the
most popish parts of Ireland families of protestant pea
sants are scattered. These, though they may punctu
ally attend the church, and though they may, all their
lives long, profess an abhorrence of popery, yet in sick
ness, in the hour of death, when they look for that
consolation, which the prejudices, antipathies, and par
tialities of this world can no longer bestow, they look
only to the popish priest. He is sent for, and the dy
ing man, rather than be without all spiritual aid — for
expecting any attendance from the protestant incumbent
is out of the question — renounces the religion which,
perhaps, he yet prefers, and dies a papist.*
If such be the effect of the absence of every thing
clerical in the character of the protestant clergy, what
is to be expected, in the way of spiritual good, from the
labours of the popish priesthood ?
" The religion of the catholic priest is a religion of
forms; it is overlaid with ritual and ceremonial observ
ances, with various stated and indispensable matters of
sacred routine and forms of prayer. Of these, every
day brings its peculiar business and burden, its proper
addition to the general mass. > These occupy a large
portion of time. It is true, they may be slurred over,
they may be irreverendly and rapidly disposed of, and
from the necessity of the case, this often occurs ; but
still they are a wonderful incumbrance. They lie
heavily upon the man, whose armour should fit him
tight; who should be "loaded with no unnecessary
weight, and embarrassed with no unwieldy apparatus,
when he goes forth to the active controversy, and the
doubtful combat of both worlds."
With a formal protestant clergy, and a popish priest
hood combined, do we marvel at the state of Ireland ?—
at the abundance of crime, and violence, in a land yet
showing the scars of civil war ; poor, overtithed, over-
taxed, and overrented ; and oppressed with burdens ; '
drained by absentees ; without religious instruction or
*moral culture ; without industry ; and swarming with
a most improvident, headlong population ? The fol-

IRISH CHARACTER. 29
lowing powerful description occurs in the able and in
teresting pamphlet above cited.
" The Irish people can combine many fine qualities
of heart and head with dissoluteness and depravity,
with fraud and deceit, with an habitual disregard for
truth, and frequent violation of the sacred sanction of
an oath. Their religion is the observance of a few
idle ceremonies, and terror of the priest. Their alle
giance is terror of the law. But they have a law and
a religion, which is neither of the priest, nor of the
constitution : and which restrained in its exercise, is
strongly enough seated in their hearts, to bid defiance
to both. The leading doctrine of this code, like that
of the Koran, is, that God is, good. That it is right to
enjoy the good things of this world, which he has made
for the use of all, and which are the common property
of mankind ; that if prevented by arbitrary laws and
regulations, it is right to evade them ; that the soil is
equally the patrimony of all, and belongs of right, if to
any, to those only who till if ; that property in the crops
is acquired by those whose labour produces them ; that
the spontaneous product of the earth, which God makes
to grow without cultivation, as timber, is free to all.
That temptation, like every thing else, is of the ap
pointment of God ; that itis natural to man to yield to
it, and therefore he w!ill not punish him ; that God is
not severe, but must intend that they should enjoy what
he puts in their way, and that eternal punishment
would be disproportioned to any offence that could be
committed in this life. Nothing but the strong arm of
the state restrains the deluge of calamity, which these
notions are calculated to let in upon society. That
arm, indeed, stays the mountain-torrent, but sufficient
of these wild waters find their way into the vale of so
ciety, to render all in this region unsafe and uncom-
i fortable. The outrages of the Irish peasantry in the years
1821 and 1822, for the avowed purpose of abolishing
tithe, tax, and rent, read a very forcible practical com-

SO POPERY AND PROTESTANTISM.
riientary upon the foregoing description of their cha
racter and conduct.
It is quite vain to endeavour to infuse into these
misguided people clearer notions of religious truth, of
moral obligation, and of social order, by penal statutes,
and by martial law. These have been sufficiently
fried, both as to duration and to severity.
The only remedy to be found for the deep and deadly
evils of Ireland is to be found in the general circula
tion of the Bible, and in the evangelical preaching of
the protestant clergy.
In the reign of Elizabeth, the Irish protestant pa
rishes were twenty-five hundred, and their clergy nearly
three thousand, out of a population not amounting to
two millions. In 1822, the protestant parishes were
eleven hundred, and their clergy thirteen hundred, out
of a population reaching seven millions. Then, the
papists were scarcely two, now they are fully four to
one protestant. Could these terrible results have hap
pened, if the Irish national clergy had averaged a faith
ful discharge of their duties, as evangelical teachers
and pastors ?
In a pamphlet on "the state of the nation, at' the
commencement of the year 1822, considered under the
four departments of finance, foreign relations, home
department, colonies and board of trade," supposed to
be written by one of the cabinet-ministers, Mr. Robin
son, president of the board of trade, a sufficiently de
plorable picture is drawn of the actual condition of
Ireland. Some of the evils which afflict that country,
namely, absenteeship, disproportionate rents, defective
industry, uneducated poor, illicit distillation, super
abundant population, want of employment, &c. are
enumerated, and lamented ; but are also declared to be,
for the most part, beyond the power of the British
government to remedy, or even to mitigate.
In Mr. Simpson's " Plea for Religion and the Sacred
Writings," there is, doubtless, too much minute intem
perance of detail, anc! too much desultory declamation,

Simpson's plea. 31
yet the book contains a vast body of alarming truth,
and sound remark, upon the prevailing formalism and
general carelessness of the clergy of the Anglican
church. i v
Whatever we may think of the discretion, we can
not doubt the sincerity of a man, who, at an advanced
period of life, resigned his Church preferment, and cast
himself upon the bounty of Providence for a morsel of
bread, because he could not conscientiously remain any
longer in the establishment. No real Christian can
forget his obligations to the author of " A plea for the
deity of Jesus, and the doctrine of the Trinity;" a
book presenting the greatest weight of cumulative evi
dence in favour of the very foundation principles of
our most holy faith, that has ever yet been brought to
bear upon religious subjects.
I cannot refrain from citing a few passages from his
"Plea for Religion," in order to show in what spirit
the good old man wrote his valedictory to the Church.
"My judgment has not been biassed by interest, by
connexion, byanclination, or by any human considera
tion whateyer. I have thought much upon the sub
ject ; read on both sides of the question whatever has
fallen in my way ; conversed with various persons for
the sake of information ; suffered the matter to' rest
upon my mind for some years undetermined ; have ne
ver made my fears, suspicion and dissatisfaction known
to any man ; and when I bring near to myself the
thought of quitting one of the most commodious
Churches in the kingdom, erected on purpose for my
own ministrations ; leaving interred by it many a pre
cious deposit, who, I trust, will be my joy and crown
in the great day of the Lord Jesus, besides a mother; a
wife, two children-, and a sister ; and giving up va
rious kind friends, whom I love as my own soul, toge
ther with a large body of people, that, if it were possi
ble, would have plucked out their own eyes, and have
given them to me — what shall I say ?
"All that is affectionate within me recoils. I am
torn with conflicting passions ; and am readv to sav

32 MICAIAH TOWGOOD.
with the Apostle, — I could wish that myself were ac
cursed from Christ for my friends and brethren, whom
I love in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
" But various passages of Scripture urge me, on the
most momentous considerations, to renounce a situa
tion which I cannot any longer retain with peace of
mind. I bewail it exceedingly ; I have received no
affront ; conceived no disgust; formed no plans; made
no connexions; consulted no friends; experience no
weariness of the ministerial office ; the ways of reli
gion are still pleasant; I have been glad when duty
called me to the house of God. His word hath been
delightful; the pulpit has been awfully pleasing ; the
table of the Lord hath been the joy of my heart ; and
now, that Providence calleth me away, with some de
gree of reluctance, I say, — Lord, here I am ; — do with
me what seemeth Thee good. Let me stay where I
am — I gladly stay. Send me where Thou, wilt. I
will endeavour to submit. Only go with me, and Thy
pleasure shall be mine.

-" I argue not

Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope ; but still bear up, and steer
Right onward."
In the biographical notice prefixed to Mr. Parsons's
edition of the " Plea for the deity of Jesus," is contain
ed a very interesting account of Mr. Simpson's truly
evangelical labours in the pulpit and in his parish ; as
an able and eloquent preacher, a learned and orthodox
expounder of the Scriptures, and a faithful, zealous,
efficient, pastor. Seldom, in the history of the Chris
tian church, has occurred an instance of a minister
more truly devoted to his people ; of a people more ten
derly attached to their minister.
Perhaps one of the most hostile publications, on the
part of the dissenters in England, vindicating their dis
sent from the national church, is Mr. Micaiah Tow-
good's book, entitled " A dissent from the Church of
England fully justified, and proved to be the genuine
and just consequence of the allegiance which is due to

MESSRS. BOGUE AND BENNET. 33
Jesus Christ, the only lawgiver in ithe church." This
book has run through several editions, and is a fa
vourite with non-episcopalians; but the author's own
Arianism materially dilutes the venom, and abates
the force of his objections to the evangelical doc
trines of the Anglican Church.
The first volume of Messrs. Bogue and Bennet's
'i History of Dissenters," contains some elaborate
arguments for general dissent;' or dissent from all
churches, whether popish or protestant; whether
episcopalian, or presbyterian, or congregational.
The concluding chapter in this volume offers reasons
for particular dissent from the church of England ;
the church and dissent being personified as two old
women ; of whom one is made to talk like a fool, and
the other like a bigot. This chapter is neither con
ceived nor executed in the best possible taste, as to
sentiment or manner ; and is calculated rather to re
tard, than to accelerate its professed object.
It is, however, due to these gentlemen to state,
that whatever may be their opinions respecting
church order, discipline and government, they are,
invariably, staunch and able advocates for the evan-r
gelical doctrines of grace ; the scriptural doctrines,
promulgated by the protestant reformers.
In the house of lords, during a debate upon the
propriety of slackening the legal cords, by which the
dissenting sects are tied and bound in England, lord
Chatham said, in his own strong way, and emphatic
manner— " we have a popish liturgy, a Calvinistic
creed, and an Arminian clergy." These expressions
of the elder Pitt savour a little of oratorical license;
and pass somewhat beyond the limits of plain matter
of faet. For the present, let it suffice to observe,
that the American-Anglo-Chnrch is, in no way, con
nected with the state or government ; labours under
no lay-patronage ; has no system of tithes ; but stands
on the same level of political toleration and right,
with every other religious denomination throughout
the Union; and. as a church, professes to be founded
' 5

34 EDINBURGH.
and built upon the primitive ground, marked out and
fenced in by the great English reformers ; that is to
say, upon the liturgy, articles and homilies of the
Anglican church.
How far the American-Anglo-Church pulpit ser
vices generally coincide with the evangelical doc
trines promulgated. from the reading-desk, and
Contained and expounded in the articles and homi
lies, may be the subject of future consideration.
In my eighteenth year, I applied myself to the
study of medicine ; first in the country, then in Lon
don, then in Edinburgh, with the characteristic
ardour of a sanguine temperament. In the Scottish
metropolis, for its size, far the most intellectual place
I ever knew, my mind was abundantly gratified. In
the intervals of attendance on the medical lectures,
and visiting the Infirmary, I listened to the prelect
tions of professor Dalzell, the well known compiler
of the " Collectanea," on Greek poetry ; and began
an acquaintance with metaphysics and political eco
nomy. It would be worse than idle, to attempt even a
sketch of the intelligent, vivacious, sceptical state of
society in Edinburgh, after the full-length portrait
given in " Peter's letters to his kinsfolk ;" a work, so
far as two years of residence in that distinguished
school of instruction gave me an opportunity of judg
ing, as accurate in its details as it is able and inte
resting, though occasionally quaint and obsolete, in
its execution and manner.
Beyond all peradventure, my own religious im
pressions and opinions were considerably diminished
and shaken, during my noviciate in the Scottish uni
versity, where I encountered, either avowed infidel
ity, or formal indifference, all around me, in either
sex, and in every age ; and perused the pages of
Voltaire, Rousseau, Helvetius, and other worthies of
the French school of impiety and radicalism, together
with the works of some of the English infidels, from
lord Herbert, of Cherbury, who holds the bad emi-

ALISON. — HALYBURTON. 35
nence of beirg the reputed father of deism in En
gland, down to Thomas Paine, who is about the most
illiterate and scurrilous, reyiler of Revelation, which
the incubation of heated politics upon blasphemous
insanity ever engendered.
The preaching of Mr. Alison, the author of a just
ly celebrated " Essay on Taste," and of some sweet
little Sabbatical effusions, or dulcet discourses, by a
singular misnomer called sermons, was not, at least
so long as I heard him, peculiarly calculated either
to dispel the darkness of infidelity, or to direct the
vision of the heart to the rising of the Sun of Right
eousness, with healing underneath his wings.
The most efficient refutation <of the infidel writers
that I ever read, fe Halyburton's " Inquiry into the
necessity of Revelation ;" a book at onee able, learn
ed and evangelical. The ingenuous youth, who is
really seeking to find out the truth, will foe well re
paid by a diligent study of this little volume ; after
which he may consult the larger and more laborious
tomes of Leland, on the Christian Revelation and
against the deistieal writers. To those, who think
religion something more than a mere form of words,
and are yearning after the power of godliness in their
own hearts, the Conversion of Halyburton, as related
in his Memoirs, will afford an abundant harvest of in
struction and delight.
In the eourse of ecclesiastical studies, established
by the American house of bishops, in the convention
of 1 804, in pursuance of a resolution of the preceding
general convention, it is said, "that it would be best
for the student to read what the deists themselves
bave written."
The benefit of studying infidel productions is ques
tionable ; the peril certain. A correspondent in the
Christian Observer, for April, 1819, shows the direct
tendency of studying sceptical writers to bewilder
the understanding, and corrupt the heart. The con
cluding sentences of this admirable paper are replete
with sound sense and true piety.

36 STUDY OP SCEPTICAL WRITERS.
" If an inquiry should be made for a safer and more
certain course, (than the study of sceptical writers,)
the Christian might well be exhorted to furnish him
self with a rational conviction of his faith ; and to
that end he might be urged to study, with a simple,
serious, and impartial mind, some of those worthies
of our cause, who have summed up, with unanswer
able precision, the evidences which establish the
divinity of our religion; not forgetting, however, that
the Scripture is its own best evidence ; and that,
where devoutly studied with humble and earnest
prayer to God, irresistible marks of divinity will ap
pear in its hallowed pages. For prayer is the key,
as well to a correct faith, as to a holy life."
" When once true religion is planted within us,
prayer must fence it round, and protect it from the
storm. From that period, the foundation once laid,
the Christian will find his time more profitably occu
pied in learning to love and glorify his Saviour, than
in labouring to protest, with historical accuracy,
against the fallacy of errors, which are sometimes
kept alive and in repute, like popular criminals, by
the very intemperance with which they are attacked.
The Bible, that common centre, round which all dis
putants affect to move, and to which they all refer,
will teach us the insignificance of many minute dis
crepancies, which would be perfectly undeserving of
notice, if they did not frequently cause an alienation
of the heart, far wider than the petty difference of
the mind : and as to the more important and vital
principles of our faith, let us provide ourselves with
the consoling reflection, dwelt upon by the learned
and pious bishop of St. David's, (Dr. Burgess,) ' that
having once convinced ourselves of the truth of Chris
tianity, it is childish to discuss its falsity ; having once
satisfied ourselves as to the positive, it is downright
absurdity to try the plausibility of the negative.'' "
Indeed, there is no medium between receiving the
Holy Scriptures as the entire Word of God, believ
ing their declarations, obeying their precepts'; and

MEDICAL FACULTY.

37

launching, at once, into the dark deep of infidelity,
without rudder to steer, without compass to guide,
without chart to direct, without beacon to warn,
without star to light us on our course.
On my return to London from Edinburgh, 1 soon
relinquished all thoughts of the practice of a pro
fession, which is, of necessity, condemned to be per
petually raking into the very kennels of human in
firmity. With the study of anatomy, physiology, sur
gery and medicine, both in England and Scotland, I
was delighted ; but I shrunk from the practice of
either branch of the Esculapian calling.
Not that I would, for a moment, be understood to
depreciate the practical part of a vocation, to the
science and skill of whose professors the human race
owes so much ; to whom so many myriads are indebt-
ed^or ease from agony, for rescue from the jaWs of
death, for the enjoyment and activity of prolonged
and useful existence. It would not be easy, in the
history of the world, to find a body of men, to whom
science and learning generally, in addition to the par
ticular labours of their own professional department,
are more largely indebted than to the congregated
hosts of the medical faculty. Lord Chatham used to
say, that he gathered more instruction from Dr.
Friend than from any other of his acquaintance.
As soon as I had determined not to enter upon the
practice of physic, in any of its branches, I enrolled
myself a member of the Honourable Society of the
Inner Temple, and placed myself in the office of Mr.
Chitty, the well known author of various law-books,
on " Bills of Exchange ;"— " Pleading ;"---" Criminal
Law," &c. ; and reputed to be, at least, among the
first, if not the first, of the special pleaders in West
minster Hall. During two years of pupillage under
this gentleman, I cultivated the melancholy science
of special pleading.
But before I was called to the English bar, I suf
fered myself to be persuaded, partly by solitary read
ings partly by my own crude cogitations, and partly

38 UNITED STATES AND BRITAIN.
by the opinions and arguments of others, elder, and
as I then supposed, wiser and more experienced than
myself, that Britain was too feudal in her institutions,
too aristocratic in her social forms, for the welfare
and happiness of her people ; and that the United
States of America, having cast off the slough of he
reditary government, rank and property, opened; an
inexhaustible region for the developement of talents ;
the improvement of science, learning, and art, in all
their various branches; and the advancement of po
litical freedom, prosperity and beatitude.
Full of these preconceived notions, I came to the
United States in the spring of 1806, in order to see
with my own eyes, this new Atalantis, with all its fe
licitous results of a government, unique in the histo
ry of man ; a democracy, purely elective and repre
sentative. The deliberate opinions of my riper
years, in relation to the two countries, are before the
world, in " The Resources of the British Empire,"
and " The Resources of America."
May I hope to escape the imputation of egotism,
if I say a few words respecting the latter work? »= In
these United States it was abused, as vilifying Ame
rica, in order to exalt Britain. In England, the Re
viewers stigmatized me as " an enthusiast for the
glory of the United States," which, they said, "I
founded on the ruin and depression of England."
Now, both these contradictory accusations cannot
be correct ; and is it not a fair inference, that the
*ruthhas been impartially spoken of both countries;
and that the bigoted partisans of both, blinded by
*heir own malevolence and prejudices, have, in this
instance, as they usually do in other cases, mistaken
an unnatural hatred of another country for a proof
of pure and patriotic devotedness to their own; and
merely exhibited a picture of their own moral de
formity, alike alien from every expression of reason,
truth, and justice ? Whep Voltaire abused all man
kind, as being villains, he, at least, proved himse¥
to be no saint.

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. 39
In Germany, where a professor at Weimar has
translated the book into his own vernacular, it has
escaped this cross fire of political partisanship. Ne
ver waste your breath for one moment, says Lavater,
upon bigots* either in politics or in religion; for of
all sinners they are the most incorrigible.
To those great doctors of philosophy, whether po
litical or religious, who, invariably, content them
selves with only a one-sided view of every subject pre
sented to their deliberate consideration, I would re
commend the following sentences in the preface to
the first volume of the Christian Observer.
" We conceived that a spirit of forbearance and
Christian charity was perfectly consistent with the
strictest orthodoxy, and we indulged a sanguine
hope, that Christians, in general, would concur in
thi§ sentiment. Our expectations have been disap
pointed. Some of our correspondents have com
plained of our manifesting too great mildness and
conciliation towards dissenters and separatists ; in
terpreting a language without bitterness into blame
able partiality ; and misconstruing our reluctance to
irritate, and to give needless offence, into want of
zeal, or defect of courage. On the other side, some
dissenters have charged us with being bigoted, per
secuting Churchmen, and have not only treated us
as adversaries of the dissenting interest, but as the
enemies of Christianity itself.
"Our religious principles have been no less the
Subject of contradictory animadversion. By rigid
Calvinists we have been branded as Arminians;
while, by many Arminians, we are classed with the
disciples of Calvin. The cold and formal professor
of Christianity stigmatizes our doctrines as cant and
Methodism; while the heated enthusiast denies that
spirituality, or evangelical truth, can be traced in
our pages. It is, certainly, favourable to our cause,
that the charges against us are so discordant and
contradictory, as to require no distinct refutation ;
and we are encouraged by the very circumstance of

40 REV. DR. MASON.
our having offended the angry and intolerant of these
different parties, to hope, that we have succeeded in
finding that due medium, which is equally remote
from bigotry and the latitudinarian spirit."
To the United States I brought a mind bewildered
amidst the mazes of metaphysical speculation, per
plexed in the labyrinth of sceptical sophistry, and
entangled in the too eager pursuit of a political mil-
lenium. But a few years of sojourning in this multi
tudinous democracy ; a closer inspection of the real
ities of life ; aided by solitary reflection, and the re
sumption of those scriptural studies, which had been
too long intermitted during my medical and legal no
viciates, reillumined veteris vestigia flammm ; fanned
the dying embers of a former flame ; and caused the
heart to return once more unto its rest.
When a few years of actual experience had com
pelled me to know, that human life, even under the
favourable circumstances of youth, and health, and
intellectual occupation, was full of disappointment,
and vanity, and vexation, my soul was led, once
again, to look upward, and say to Jehovah, " whom
have I in heaven but Thee ?" The alternations of
hope and fear, the gleamings of ambition, and the
clouds of doubt ; the constant goadings of the natu
ral mind, and the occasional yet terrible strivings of
the spirit; the war of nature, and the conflicts of the
heart, struggling between the instinctive incitements
to a mere worldly career of secular pursuit, and the
frequent warnings to lay hold upon the horns of the
Altar, and obtain a personal interest in the all-suffi
cient sacrifice; all tended, under the good Provi
dence of God, to demonstrate the entire nothingness
of every earthly vocation and object, in comparison
with an inquiry after the one thing needful ; and to
show forth the corruption, the folly, the weakness,
the depravity of " that hideous sight, a naked humart
heart." I had become acquainted, while a medical student
in Edinburgh, with the Rev. Dr. Mason, who was

Iev. dr. mason. 41
then, in the winter of 1800 — 1801, on a visit from
New-York to Scotland, in search of some seceding
ministers, wherewith to build up in greater strength,
his own ecclesiastical body, the Associate Reformed
Church in the United States. I was prodigiously
struck with the force and vigour, and range of intel
lect exhibited in his conversation; and with the pre
cipitation of heedless youth, thence drew a conclu
sion, not altogether verified by subsequent experi
ence ; namely, if this be a fair average specimen of
American clergy, what must be her lawyers, her
statesmen, her men of letters, her philosophers.
But the truth is, my premises were naught. No
country ever did, or ever can, average such an amount
of clerical, or of any other talent.
On my arrival in New-York, in July, 1806, we re
newed our acquaintance, which soon ripened into an
intimacy truly fraternal, that lasted about six years ;
when it was broken up, and for ever scattered to the
wild winds, by the systematic sycophancy and inces
sant intrigue of a very reverend brother.
During six years I sat under the ministry of Dr.
Mason; and it is but justice to say of this profound
divine, and powerful polemic, that while the better
days of his intellectual strength continued to shine in
all their unclouded splendour, I never heard a greater
preacher; and yet I have listened to some of the
most eminent men in the Anglican church, including
the mighty Horsley himself As an expositor of
the Sacred Volume, I never heard Mason's equal ;
and his single sermons upon detached texts, were,
when he was fully roused to the requisite pitch of
mental exertion, surpassed by none that I ever heard
or read.
Like all extempore preachers, his pulpit services
varied in mental power and value, according to the
degree of preparation, the state of health, the tem
perature of the spirits, the standard of excitement.
But even in his most ordinary efforts, his unpremedi
tated effusions, the thewes and' sinews, the bones and
•6 '

42 KEV. DR. CHALMERS.
dimensions of a giant were visible ;—disjecti membra
gigantis. He was completely master of his own theo
logical system, that of full-blooded Calvinism, or
Supralapsarianism ; in the warfare of which, both
offensive and defensive, he proved himself a most
pointed and powerful writer.
The very few sermons which he has published, his
Letters on frequent Communion, his Voice of Warn
ing, his Oration on the death of Hamilton, some
splendid fragments in the Christian's Magazine, and
his noble Plea for Catholic Communion, all, in very
deed, Scriptural, able, eloquent, are, I believe, the
only scanty remains of a truly evangelical divine, who
might, if his industry, perseverance and energy had
been commensurate with his genius, talents and elo
quence, have brightened the remotest recesses of
Christendom with the blaze of his intellectual glory;-
might have been, what Chalmers is.
When the breach between Dr. Mason and myself
had been rendered sufficiently deep and deadly to
admit of no possible cure on this side of the grave, I
returned into the bosom of that mother-church, which
had nourished me, and my brethren, and my father,.
and my. father's fathers for many preceding genera
tions. It is my wish, not to be understood as in any way
designing to reflect upon the study or the practice
of the law, by occasionally escaping from the toil and
dust, and litigation of the forum, into the city of re
fuge. I have, elsewhere, undertaken to show, in
opposition to very high authority, that the study of
law, properly directed, invigorates, sharpens, ex
pands and elevates the nobler faculties of the mind ;
and have borne testimony to the vast aggregate of
talent, learning and efficiency, which at once support
and adorn the American bar, throughout the various
states in the Union ; and have the honour of a per
sonal acquaintance wjth some of the distinguished
ornaments of the New-York bench and bar, who, in
forensic power, in public estimation, in private worthy

AMERICAN LAWSERS. 43
need not turn their backs to any jurists, ancient or
modern ; no, not even in the best days, the high and
palmy state of England, Rome or Greece.
But the heart, when once effectually led to direct
its, gaze towards the eternal world, is like an animal
that has tasted the blood of its prey, and can no
longer be restrained. To a soul, thoroughly im
pressed with the importance of sacred truth, the
wealth of Ormus and of Ind, the dominion of the Ce-
sars, the fascinations of the entire world; are all as
nothing, and less than nothing, in comparison of the
yearning of the heart to escape from the jaws of that
second death, which are, for ever, yawning wide to
receive the unrepentant, unregenerate, unconverted
myriads of mankind.

CHAPTER I.
On the Anglican Church Establishment.
In the year 1821, the Rev. S- C. Wilks published a
Work, entitled, "Correlative claims and duties; or,
an Essay on the necessity of a church establishment
in a Christian country, for the preservation of Chris
tianity among the people of all ranks and denomina
tions." This work is written with great ability and can
dour; and a strain of genuine piety pervades all
its pages. The remarks and exhortations, as to the
means of exciting and maintaining among the mem
bers of the Anglican Church, a spirit of devotion, to
gether with zeal for the honour, stability, and influ
ence of the establishment, are beyond praise. To
this book the Society for promoting Christian know
ledge and church union in the diocese of St. David's,
adjudged a premium of £50, in December, 1820.
The main position taken and enforced by Mr.
Wilks, is, — that where there is no church establish
ment, a nation necessarily tends to irreligion and hea
thenism. In this opinion Mr. Wilks is not singular. Dr.
Chalmers maintains a similar notion in his " Chris
tian and civic economy of large towns ;" and the
same track is beaten by the British and Quarterly
Reviewers ; together with many other most respect
able and able writers in England.
An inquiry, however brief and cursory, into the
soundness of this position, may be deemed of some
moment in these United States, where no church es
tablishment can be instituted, without violating an
express provision in the federal or national compact,

CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT. 45
which binds together the whole union. For if this
doctrine be sound, America has reason to apprehend
the most portentous national evils, in consequence of
not having linked the civil government and some one
dominant Christian sect in the bonds of inseparable
alliance. If this position be correct, how did Christianity
gain ground, and maintain itself, during the first three
centuries of its rise and progress ; — not only with
out, but in direct opposition to the power and force
of the state ? In the fourth century, Constantino, a
mere politician, was some time balancing in his own
mind, whether he should establish Paganism or Chris
tianity as the state religion ; and finally determined in
favour of Christianity, because he thought it, on the
whole, at that time, to be the stronger of the two ri
val candidates for imperial favour.
Many able and pious writers, besides Mr. Wilks,
have entered the lists on both sides, in support and
in reprobation of the civil establishment of Chris
tianity. Its defenders hail the secular government
as the stanch champion of the church ; while its
impugners, seeing the church, from that day in which
Constantine wedded it to the state, amalgamated
with the world, have represented this politico-cleri
cal alliance as tending directly to stifle evangelical
piety amidst the fire, and smoke, and darkness of in
tolerance, persecution, and formalism.
A brief outline of the leading historical fects of
national churches, particularly the Greek* the Latin,
the English, the Irish, and the Scottish, under every
various form and mode of civil government, would,
probably, supersede the necessity of any abstract
discussion upon this point.
Dr. Burgess, bishop of St. David's, in his Letter to
Mr. Wix, cites the following observations from Dr.
Hickes's apologetical vindication of the church of En
gland; in which the sum and substance seem to be,
that the protestant rulers of England have intruded
their secular arm into the ecclesiastical establish-

46 CONSTANTINE.
ment, somewhat more sparingly than popish sove
reigns have been wont. But this is no conclusive
proof, that either popish or protestant governments
ought to cement themselves with, and direct the
movements of any portion of the Christian Church.,
Dr. Hickes says — " the gentlemen of the Roman
communion are so apt to miscal our church a parlia
ment church, and our religion a parliament religion,
because our laws confirm and establish the doctrine
and sanctions of the Church of England. But let
them know, as bishop J ewel saith, that we hold not
God's eternal truths by parliament, but by God;
parliaments being uncertain, and often contrary, but
God's truth is one, certain, and never changeth,.
However, we are thankful to God, and religious king*
and parliaments, when they give legal establishments
to the truth ; as the imperial laws and edicts did to
the decrees of the general councils ; particularly,
as Constantine, who sate in the Nicene council,
confirmed the Nicene creed, and all other things
ordained by that council, when he was but a cate
chumen, or learner of the Christian religion.
"He called himself ™<> t%u E2r«*«w«s the external
bishop of the church ; and after his death, the fa
thers surnamed him UximtTotot, equal to the apostles ;
and the Novels of Justinian, the Nomocanons, and
Basiliks, the Capitularia of the old French, and
the laws of the ancient Saxon kings, show, that
religious princes have always thought it their duty
to defend the faith and rights of the church, and
by wholesome laws establish its peace and good
order. King Canute, in parliament, made laws con
cerning the faith, about keeping of holydays, public
prayers, learning the Lord's prayer, receiving the
eucharist thrice a year, the form of baptism, fasting
days, and other such matters of religion ; and the
popish religion owes its establishment in all popish
countries to acts of sovereign princes and states ;
without which it would not long subsist.

PARLIAMENT CHURCH. 47
" Therefore, saith bishop Jewel to Harding, as you
now call the truth of God we profess, a parliament
religion, and a parliament Gospel ; even so, with like
sobriety and gravity of speech, ye might say, our fa
thers in old times, had a parliament Christ ; and your
fathers and brethren had of late, in time of queen
Mary, a parliament faith, a parliament mass, and a
parliament pope.
" I have often wondered at the papists calling ours
a parliament church, and a parliament religion, while
they endeavour, every where, to proselyte kings and
kingdoms, and have their religion established by law.
With what reason or modesty then, can they thus
insult our church and religion, or our kings and
parliaments, since the Reformation, for meddling too
much with church affairs and matters of religion ; in
which, if any of them have gone beyond just bounds,
they have but copied some of our popish kings ?
" William the first, who established popery in En
gland, ordained that none of his people should own
any bishop of Rome for pope, but by Ms order; or
in any manner obey him, before his letters were
shown to the king; that the archbishop of Canter
bury, primate of his kingdom, presiding in a general
council of bishops, should neither enact nor prohibit
aught but what he approved and ordained ; and that
none of his bishops should, without his commandT
cite into his court, or excommunicate, or otherwise
censure, any of his barons or ministers, though for
incest, or adultery, or any other capital sin. Cuncta
ergo, divina et humana ejus nutum expectabant ; all
things, in religion and state, were at his beck ; who
violated the rights and liberties of the church, as of
the people ; making the bishops first do homage to
him, and then giving them investiture into their sees
by delivering the pastoral staff.
" These and other such examples Henry the eighth
followed in procuring some exorbitant acts of par
liament, to the prejudice of the church ; particu
larly those of his supremacy, the submission of the

48 POPISH ESTABLISHMENT.
clergy, the electing a bishop and archbishop, nomi
nated in the letter missive ; (a practice still continued
under the statute of Henry, though condemned by
that of the sixth Edward;) on account of which, and
the exercise of the Regale, according to those acts,
by the English princes since the Reformation, the
papists upbraid us with the hardships their kings and
bishops have brought upon us ; despising, and teach
ing others to despise our church and religion, as a
parliament church, and a parliament religion; be
cause we submit to a yoke which we cannot shake
off; a yoke, which galled their necks before us ; a
yoke of a popish king and parliament's making ; and
yet not heavier than w hat their church and sacerdotal
colleges wear in several dominions ; not to mention
one, more heavy and grievous, which the supremacy
of the Apostle, as they have long called the pope, hath
put upon their necks."
"I desire the reader," adds bishop Burgess, "to
take notice, that of twenty-nine or thirty schisms in
the church of Rome, etc. etc., and if it were requi
site to say more of the Roman schisms and differ
ences, I could add another account of anticardinals
and anticouncils, to this one of the antipopes."
The apology for the conduct of Henry the eighth,
offered by bishop Burnet, somewhat resembles the
reasoning of Dr. Hickes. In a letter to Mr. Ausont,
dated Paris, 10th of August, 1685, printed towards
the close of the third volume of his " History of the
reformation of the church of England," the bishop
says — " the reformation is not at all to be charged
with king Henry's faults ; for that unsteady favour
and protection which they sometimes found from him,
can no more blemish them, than the vices of those
princes, the great promoters of Christianity, cast a
blemish on the Christian religion. Let the crimes
of Clovis, as related by Gregory of Tours, be com
pared with the worst things of Henry ; and then let
any man see if he find so much falsehood, mixed with
so much cruelty, in so many repeated acts, for so

PRESENT CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT. 49
many years, in Jftenry, as,hi Cloyi§. Nor Jo we see
^jggyn^s.olfCloyis's repentance, or restitution to the
rigjMp»ws»Qf those dominions, that he had seized on
iii, so criminal a manner. And this was the first Chris
tian king pf the Franks." ,, ,...•. .«.<*»
That the Anglican, church is, at this present hour,
most ..closely welded jtg the state, appears .from the,
open avowal of all parties in the house of commons,
duiihig a recent debate?^tnat the church is part of
tlie state, and th% stateL.$art of the_ church. „_,
On the, ibthiOl January, 1821, in, discussing the
propriety of inserting in the lijturgy the name of the
late Queen of England,, Mr. J^etnerill,,orie of the
opposition numbers,, said, that priof to the R^fqrmaj
tipp, the liturgy of England had been regulated by
the #P9<pes; but when Henry the eighth separated
from, the; Roman see, the* church discipline and its
regulations were placed under the superintendence of
thejgffie power as were the civ.il right? of England. In
the4reign of Edward the sixth the liturgy vvas esta
blished ; and in successive reigns, the church b^camjs
part, of the state, as the state .became part of the
cfiurch. Such was the political effect of the Reforma
tion. Therejgn of Mary prpduced a revulsion, which,
however, wg.| removed under her immediate suc
cessors... In the reign of James, the, first, the liturgy
wa£ established innearly the same, fornxas at present.
Under the first Charles raged war, civil and religious.
After the accession of Charles the second, the act of
uniformit^was^ sanctioned by the legislature.
Mr3^etherilT proceeded to argue, that plenary
power, existed^in .the king and parliament united, to
regulate ihed^^^^ ,,
JVhereuppp Dr. Dodson, a civilian, on the crown
orpmisteriaiside of the house, rose to show, that this
power resided in the king afowe. He said that the
king had, by law, the same power, as,^ altering the
liturgy,, or summon pra|ef„as.the pope possessed and
exercised previous' to the Reformation. Henry the
eighth made alteratip^in the liturgy, of his own au-

50 LATE 0.CJEEN AND LITURGV.
thority, without consulting either the lords or com
mons. And such was the admitted power, and the
constant practice of Henry's successors ; as appeared
from the conduct of Edward and of Elizabeth, and
of subsequent sovereigns.
No provision in the act of uniformity took away the
power of the king to alter the common prayer. In
deed, that act was intended to confirm the power of
the crown, with respect to the liturgy; and its very
terms show, that the power of the crown, upon this
subject, existed previous to its enactment. If the
king does not possess the power of altering the com
mon prayer, how came it to pass that so many new
prayers have been occasionally framed and promul
gated by order of the king in council, upon particular
events ?
Thus all parties agree, that the church of England
has a supreme secular head, vested with full papal
power over its external discipline and form of wor
ship ; either in the king himself alone, or in the three
branches of the legislature, king, lords and commons
united; neither of which serious Christians can be
brought to believe an adequate substitute fori the
Redeemer himself; the Divine author, founder, pre
server and governor of his own church.
To those who are enamoured of such an alliance
between church and state, as constitutes a national
establishment of one religious communion, to the ex
clusion of every other, are recommended the follow
ing facts, related by bishop Burnet, in his history of
his own time; to show what, sort of religion secular
governments are apt to entertaip, for the direction of
their own conduct, and for the guidance of tlieir
people. The bishop says, that Fabricius, 'the wisest divine
he knew in Germany, told him some particulars which
he had from Charies Lewis the elector palatine's
own mouth; namely, that Frederic the second, who
first reformed the palatinate^res.o^ed'tQ shake' off
popery, and set up Lutheranism in his' country / but

GOVERNMENT RELIGION. 51
one of his counsellors said that the Lutherans would
always depend chiefly on the house of Saxony ; .
whence it would not become him, the first elector, to
be only the second irt the party; it was more for his
dignity, to become a Calvinist, as he would be .the
liead of that party, and have a great influence in
Switzerland, and make the Huguenots qf France and
in the Netherlands depend on bim.
This determined him to declare for the Helvetic
confession ;' but upon the ruin of his family, the duke
of Newburgh had an interview with the elector of
Brandenburgh, about their concerns in Juliers and
Cleves, and persuaded the elector to turn Calvinist;
for, since their family was fallen, nothing would more
contribute to raise the other than the espousing that
side, which would naturally come under his protec
tion; but he added, that for himself, he had turned
papist, because his little principality lay so near,
both to Austria and Bavaria.
The elector palatine told this with pleasure, as it
showed that other princes had no more sense ©f re
ligion than he himself had.
As secular governments, when interwoven with a
state church, have a direet tendency to create a secu
lar priesthood, by their mode of distributing eccle
siastical dignities and benefices, it is not to be ex
pected, that hrtimes of peril, change and persecution,
a national clergy should be ambitious of martyrdom,
rather than -relinquish or deny "their professed prin
ciples and tenets. _y
Accordingly', it is a thing unheard of in all the his
tory of Christendom, that any one, single, solitary,
formal seeular priest ever went to the stake, or to the
gibbet, or to the dungeon, rather than renouiice his
religious opinions, or relinquish his avowed creed.
At the era of the Reformation, the great body of
the English clergy changed backwards and forwards,
shifted with every wind, and moved with every tide
of courtly opinion, and royal decree. From their
original, unmixed popery, they veered into semi-pro-

52 STATE CLERGY NOT MARTYRS.
testantism, under the teaching of that powerful theor
logian, Henry the eighth. Under the sixth Edward,
they professed to be whole protestants. The bloody
Mary brought them back again to unmitigated popery.
Under the auspices of the crafty, arbitrary, persecut
ing Elizabeth, they were, once more, transmuted into
complete, ready-made protestants.
During the reign of the two first Stuarts, they were
staunch nonresistance, passive obedience, jure di-
vino high-churchmen. At the Restoration, they who,
from all the rigorous and cumbersome ceremonial of
Laud's episcopal formalism, had passed full easily,
and with all convenient speed, into the various modes
of church government and worship, adopted during
the fluctuations of the commonwealth, returned, with
equal ease, and equal speed, to the former usages
and rites, rendered still more burdensome by addi
tional impositions and severer penalties.
And doubtless, if James the second had not beeo:
cashiered by some of the leading English families,
the great mass of the national clergy would have
gone over to popery with him; yielding, however,?
another goodly crop of Bartholomew-nonconfornvi
ists; from the better portion of them.
Pray what would be the result, as to the conduct
of the clerical aggregate, in the event of a change in
the English state religion, now, in the nineteenth cen
tury ? How large a proportion of the national clergy
would become proselytes to the new scheme of
church government, whether popish, or presbyterian,
or congregational ?
If it be sound doctrine that a church establishment
is necessary to prevent a Christian nation from de
generating into heathenism, how is it, that under the
Hibernian church establishment, Ireland has, ever
since the time of Elizabeth, to the present hour, a
period of nearly three hundred years, been positively
increasing in popery, paganism, persecution, igno
rance and crime ; so as now to become an object of
apprehension and terror, instead of being, what her

IRISH CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT. 53
natural situation and capacity point ber out to be,
the efficient right arm of the British empire ?
If there be a spot, — says Mr. Middleton, in his De;
cades for 1770— 1780— in the wide range of Me-
thodistic exertion, in which the pious but fastidious
churchman would less regret its irregularity, and
more unhesitatingly rejoice in its success, it is Ire
land. From the peculiar circumstances of its eccle
siastical history, and the actual condition of its in
habitants, the benevolent mind cannot but feel satis
faction at the endeavours of the Wesleyans to carry
religion into the cabins of its benighted peasantry.
Four-fifths of the population were lying in the dark
ness of pagan ignorance, or the twilight of popish
superstition ; and the (national} clergy in general,
partly from motives of delicacy to the Romish parish
priests, and partly from the want of zeal to encounter
local difficulties in their instruction and conversion,
seemed to abandon them to their fate.
The first preachers of Christianity in Ireland— ob
serves : Dr. Beaufort — established a great number of
bishoprics, which gradually coalesced into the thirty-
two dioceses, that, for several centuries, constituted
the ecclesiastical division of the kingdom. But when
the country became impoverished and depopulated
by the perpetual feuds and frequent civil wars, with
which it was desolated for ages, it was found neces
sary, at different periods, to unite some of the poorest
of these sees, in order that the bishops might have a
competence to support the dignity and hospitality
incumbent on their stations ; and hence it comes,
that there are only twenty-two prelates in the church
of Ireland, twenty sees being united under ten bi
shops. These'causes having had the same operation
withrespect to parishes^ "the twcvthousand four hun
dred and thirty-eight parishes dq not form quite
twelve hundred benefices, many having been conso
lidated by the privy council, from time to time, under
the authority of an act of parliament; and many

54 RELIGION IN AND OUT OF CHURCH.
others, though but episcopally united, having been
considered as only one living; time out of mind.
The consequence was, that many parts of this fine
and interesting country exhibited the appearance of
wide and extensive parishes, nominally under a pro
testant incumbent, but actually divided into districts
under Romish clergymen ; while the great body'of
the natives, retaining the religion of their ancestors,
were forced to contribute to the maintenance of a re
formed hierarchy ; their resentments, meanwhile, em- -
bittered by the tyrannical conduct of the middle-men,
or agents, employed by the absentee land proprie
tors. The existing state, moral and physical, of Ireland,
is, most assuredly, no proof of the Christianizing ten
dencies of the Anglican and Hibernian church esta
blishments. If it be a correct position, that a church establish
ment is necessary to preserve a Christian country
from the darkness of heathen ignorance, how hap
pens it that there has been generally, and is now"," a
larger proportional aggregate qf evangelical piety oui
of, than in the church of' England?
To say nothing, for the present, of Jhe condition' of
the state religion, under the Tudors and Stuarts,' ite
formalism and deadness, during the reigns of William,
of Anne, and of the two first sovereigns of the Bruns
wick dynasty, are sufficiently notorious to all who are
acquainted with the ecclesiastical history of that pe
riod. Nay, even the revivals which took place in
the time of George the third, have pot leavened a
very large proportion of the national clergy ; as ap
pears from Mr. Middleton's " Ecclesiastical Memoir
of the four first decades of the reign of George the
third." ° 5
Mr. Middleton gives a general description of the
English hierarchy and clergy, at the commencement
of that period, in the year 1760. He ranks the cha
racter of the episcopal bench as next in importance

ANGLICAN BISHOPS IN 1760. 55
to. that .of, the sovereign. If the king be legal head!
of the » national church, and supreme in all causes^
ecclesiastical as well as civil, the bishops are consi
dered as its spiritual fathers, its actual guardians, its
practical governors. ,. ,,, . , ,,
t He thinks that the circle of human dignities can
not produce a more weighty or honourable charge
than that of an Anglican prelate. Lifting his, mitred
head in parliaments, and taking his place among the
hereditary legislators of the realm, t and, cpunsellors
of the sovereign, his exalted station entitles him to
watch over the interest, advocate the doctrine, pre
serve the discipline, regulate the worship, and defend
the revenue of the fairest and discreetest of the
daughters of the Reformation ; to enter his protest
with gravity and firmness against the highest patri
cian, who shall attempt to corrupt her principles, or
destroy her privileges ; to speak of the Divine testi
monies before kings, and not to be ashamed, know
ing his immense responsibility to that Providence,
who hath constituted him a chief servant in the fiouse-
hold of faith ; while his diocesan, judicial .and aca
demical authority, ort connexion, enables him in a
variety of ways to consult the spiritual good of his
cotemporaries, and affords many facilities for advanc
ing the cause of godliness, by favouring the faithful
reporters of the message of heaven, or discountenanc
ing the secular and heterodox among the subordinate
pastors. , i ,,
But the Anglican bishops of thajt day are .described
as not being conspicuous for evangelical purity of
sentiment, or attachment to the distinguishing tenets
of the Reformation, as expressed in the articles of
the religious communities over which they presided.
They drank too much into the spirit of the fashion
able theology. Occasionally, the sound sense and
pious convictions of certain individuals of their num
ber, led themto remonstrate with their clergy on the
necessity of adopting a mqre Scriptural strain of
preaching than generally prevailed.

©

56 ENGLISH STATE CLERGY.
Occasionally, too, they set the example, in their
own discourses, of a departure from the dry method
of ethical exhortation, and fortified the lesson of obe
dience by the powerful sanction of Revelation,, or
enlightened their audience by an exhibition of the
holy verities of the Gospel. But the doctrine of jus
tification by faith alone, was, in general, inadequately
and imperfectly stated ; the corruption of human na
ture was spoken of in qualified terms; and, salvation
was too often represented as the possible attainment
of mortal exertion, and the legal reward of a religiolis
and virtuous conduct.
They, either wilfully or ignorantly, stigmatized all
zeal for the honour of the Saviour, and all compas
sion for perishing sinners, which led the preacher to
proclaim, with appropriate energy, and in familiar
terms, the fulness arid freeness of the everlasting
Gospel, as Methodism, and a design to court popu
larity, and ultimately to effect an overthrow of the
national church*
By most of the dignitaries of that day, and their
ordinary associates, fervour was denominated cant:
watchfulness, hypocrisy ; and abstraction from world
ly society, unnecessary strictness. Connected^ with
the first families in the empire, by birth, alliance, or
circumstance, their criticisms on the belles lettres,
too often usurped the place of Scriptural information;
what was elegant in conversation was more esteemed
than what was edifying ; and among the higher or
ders of the clergy, the unction of humility, which
flowed from the silvered temples of Beveridge, down
to the skirts of his garment, and the glow of holy
zeal which animated the bosoms of Reynolds and
Hopkins, seemed to be exchanged for courtly aspi
rations after preferment and translation, or distinc
tion in the laxer schools of modern divinity.
The national clergy of that period are divided into
the secular, the latitudinarian, the orthodox, and the
evangelical. The secular are represented as a numerous class.

SECULAR CLERGY.

57

Strangers to the life and power of godliness, imper
fectly acquainted with the religious truths, of which
they were appointed heralds, and better versed in the
maxims of pagan ethics than the principles of Chris
tian morality, they afforded a subject of animadver
sion to dissenters ; grieved the souls of the righteous
in their own communion ; and bartered the lasting
, esteem of the wise and good for the precarious friend
ship of the idle and the dissolute.
If residing in populous towns, they thought it not
derogatory to their sacred profession to- take a pro
minent part in the amusements of the worldly and the
frivolous. The theatre, the tavern, the bowling-
green, the ball room, the concert, and the horserace,
were the accustomed haunts of these degenerate
sons of Levi. Hour after hour was consumed at the
card table. They sought to ingratiate themselves
with the polite and wealthy, by suppleness of man
ner, smartness of repartee, readiness of quotation,
or art of compliment ; and as the clerical dress, so
commonly worn in the preceding century, was now
altogether superseded by a habit more and more
assimilated to the prevailing fashion, little was left,
even in appearance, to distinguish the ambassador of
the Lord of hosts.
In country villages, they associated with the gen
try, in their field sports, hunting parties, or convivial
feasts ; where they witnessed vain conversations, im
pious ejaculations, and intoxicated spirits. The lord
of the manor attended his parish church on Sunday,
from a sort of mixed feeling of at once propitiating the
favour of the Deity, and setting an example to his
tenants of reverence for instituted ordinances. In
this little Gothic temple, he listened to the clerk that
prophesied smooth things; or^ at intervals, dozed
under the tame admonition ; and when Jarought to the
bed of death, he looked to this same clerk, with
whom he had so often sate down to eat and drink, and
risen up to play, to administer to him the emblems
8

58 NATIONAL RELIGION.
of a' Saviour's body and blood, as a passport to the
joys of eternity. „
Those who have learned from the study of their
Bible, and from acquaintance with the history of the
world, that human communities and nations, invaria
bly, flourish or fade in proportion to the prevalence
or absence of pure, vital religion, in the hearts and
actions of their people,— will readily acknowledge,
that when so large a portion of the ordained clerical
instructors of the state were thus unfaithful to their,
charge, and unqualified for their office; and when, in
consequence, so much irreligion and gross profligacy
pervaded all orders of men, it was a righteous retri
bution of a righteous God to smite the nation with his
rod ; to purify the polluted atmosphere by his thun
ders ; and to rouse the country to a sense of religious
and moral duty, by a series of alarming visitations.
The civij, commotions of this period, the animosity
and avowed want of principle in political parties, the
embarrassed condition of the government, in its hos
tilities with European powers, and the impending
dismemberment of its American empire, are the evi
dent judgments of Jehovah on a land that had dis
honoured his name, and his truth, through the means
of that very national church establishment which is
assumed to be necessary, as the sole preservative of
men from general irreligion and heathenism.
The conduct of many secular clergymen, who en
gaged with violence and pertinacity in party politics,
contributed, also, to lower the whole order of the
state priesthood in the estimation of the public^
Contests among the presbyters themselves were, in
deed, diminished by the disuse of the houses of con
vocation ; but the seeds of other evils were sown by
the liberty given to the national clergy of voting for
members of parliament, as an equivalent for relin
quishing the privilege of self-taxation.
This tended to divide the clerical body on great
political questions, and to induce individuals, on ei-

LATITUDINARIAN CLERGY. 59
ther side, to conciliate the favour of patrons of be
nefices, by exertions in their behalf. Political elec
tions became regular steppingstones to church pre
ferment. Intemperate language sounded from the
pulpit; and the zeal, with which opposite party opi
nions were maintained in public meetings or private
parties, ill became those whose province it was to
endeavour to compose, the jarring elements, and show
mankind the superior duty and interest of striving for
a heavenly inheritance, and giving diligence to make
their spiritual calling and election sure. Tracts,
poems, essays, were issued from the press by reve
rend authors, who breathed the spirit, and exhibited
the style of political partisans.
Nearly allied to the secular class of the establish
ed clergy, was that of the latitudinarians ; many of
whom, however, were decorous in their habits and
studious men. They were chiefly distinguished by
the grounds on which they subscribed to the articles,
and used the formularies of the Anglican Church.
They considered as indifferent many points of
faith and doctrine, which the orthodox regarded as
essential ; and deemed it a, discharge of their obli
gations, and a maintenance of their integrity, pro
vided they did not openly and avowedly attack the
received system in their professional capacity ; but
contented themselves with occasional criticism and
speculative discussion. They merged the character
of divines in that of philosophers ; and putting their
own sense on certain theological terms and religious
declarations, they were led, by the very nature of
their system, to vague interpretation and disingenu
ous conclusion; while they were attached to the
ecclesiastical establishment by expediency, rather
than conviction.
This division of the state clergy were not contented
with professing themselves mere Arminians, and ob
jecting to that portion of the articles commonly called
Calyinistic ; but lapsed, in various degrees and pro-

60 NEGATIVE DOCTRINES.
portions, into the Arian, Socinian and Pelagian here
sies and errors.
Some adopted 4he notions of Dr. Samuel Clarke,
in respect to the doctrine of the Trinity, as well as
the mysterious subjects of liberty and necessity.
Others departed from the Scriptural simplicity with
which the Anglican Church receives the doctrine of
the fall of man in her articles and homilies ; and
either considered the Mosaic account of that awful
event as an oriental allegory; or, as only implying a
partial declension in the human mind, and by no
means a total departure from original righteousness.
In perfect accordance with their inadequate views
of human apostacy, the latitudinarians rejected the
truly protestant tenet of justification by faith alone;
Luther's Articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesias;
calling the doctrine of imputed righteousness absurd
and unintelligible ; while they ridiculed the notion
of experimental evidence in religion ; a melancholy,
but conclusive proof, that they themselves had never
been the subjects of religious feelings and affections.
On the doctrine of future punishment, both as to
its na.ture and duration, this class of state clergy en
tertained loose opinions. From the days of Origen,
false teachers had endeavoured to lull to sleep the
consciences of sinners, by impugning the Scriptural
denunciations of final and irreversible punishment to
the ungodly and impenitent. Never, says dean
Young, did sin sleep on so soft a pillow, as is made
up of this hypothesis. A negation of happiness, or,
at most, a qualified punishment for a limited term,
was a sufficient reckoning, in the opinion of latitu
dinarian theologues, for the most abandoned rebel
against God and his Christ.
The orthodox, among the established clergy, were
fewer in number than either the seculars or the lati
tudinarians. They were eminently serviceable to
the church, and to the cause of religion, by their bold
and steady assertion of some essential doctrines of

ORTHODOX CLERGY. 61
the Gospel. And though some of them revived the
high tory intolerance of a former age; and in their
zeal for church government, consigned all non-epis
copalians to the wncovenanted mercies of God, and
thus outraged the feelings, and shocked the under
standings of many of the most pious and estimable of
their contemporaries ; were they yet respectable for
their general consistency, as members of the esta
blishment. Their sermons were deficient in the energetic
spirituality, and affectionate simplicity which marked
the addresses of their evangelical brethren ; nor did
they appeal so forcibly, on the truths of religion, to
the consciences of their hearers. Yet were their
ministrations blessed to the conversion and edifica
tion of many ; while they exhorted sinners to flee for
refuge to the hope set before them in the Gospel,
and admonished them to seek that influence from
above, which would guide them into all truth.
Against the Arian they upheld the doctrine of a
Trinity in Unity ; against the Socinian, the need of
an atonement; against the Pelagian, the depravity of
our common nature. But in stating the plan of sal
vation, they were not always sufficiently clear in as
signing to repentance and faith their due place in the
Christian covenant ; nor in representing obedience
as the fruit, or evidence of justifying faith. Their
phraseology sometimes led the half-convinced, self-
justiciary into a notion, that a threefold merit attached
to his person on repenting, believing, and obeying ;
and that when salvation was affirmed to be of grace,
it rather referred to its origination on the part of
God, than its reception on the part of men. Bred in
the modern school of Sherlock and Wilson, they
drew witifless discrimination the characters of real
and nominal Christians, than those divines who
studied the writings of Hall and Leighton; and form
ing their style on that of Tillotson, they branded a
plainer and a more Scriptural diction as a remnant
of puritanism.

62 EVANGELICAL CLERGY.
The evangelical clergy of the church of England,
so called in derision and scorn, by their formal bre
thren, were, at this period, a very small band. Thinly
scattered up and down the kmgdom, they were op
posed to the seculars by their devotedness to Jhe
duties of their sacred calling ; to the latitudinarians,
by their jealous adherence to the letter and spirit of
Revelation ; and to the orthodox, by their faithful
ness in proclaiming the doctrines of grace, and
declaring the whole counsel of God; while they
equalled them in theological correctness and moral
consistency. In this class there were subdivisions ; some pre
ferring the Calvinistic, others the Arminian scheme.
They not only differed in their pulpit statements, but
opposed each other from the press ; and were insen
sibly led into the thorny labyrinth of party polemics,
instead of making common cause against the common
enemy, and fighting in union under the banner of the
Cross, against formalism, and irreligion, and infidel
ity. They differed, also, in phraseology; some en
deavouring to use plain, Scriptural language, with
out descending into provincial barbarisms, or collo
quial vulgarity; others thinking, that to abstain from
a rude and homely diction, was an evasion of the of
fence of the Cross.
Some, lamenting the prevalence of religious dark
ness in England, and deeply sensible of the dangerous
state of the unconverted millions of their country
men, overleaped the pale of their own parishes, and
became itinerant preachers ; exhorting their fellow-
sinners to repentance, faith and obedience, in uncon-
secrated places, in barns and in conventicles, and in
the open air.
But the greater number of the evangelicals deemed
such proceedings inconsistent with the regular minis
trations of a national priesthood ; incompatible with
their vow of canonical obedience; and calculated to
prejudice their civil and ecclesiastical superiors
against the most serious and devoted of the state

RECENT EPISCOPATE. 63
clergy. Many of these divines, in their preaching,
did not confine themselves to the merely reading a
written or printed sermon ; but addressed their con
gregations from short notes, or extempore, according
to the custom of the best English clergy, under the
Tudors and the Stuarts. Some of them, also, re
vived the usage of singing hymns and spiritual songs,
abounding in evangelical sentiment, in addition to
the common versions of the psalms of David.
Does such a state of religion, as that just described,
among the national clergy of England, two hundred
years after the settling of the state church by Eliza
beth, prove the position, that a church establishment
is necessary to keep alive the flame of pure religion
in a Christian country, and to preserve it from gra
vitating into general heathenism ?
The revivals of religion, which have taken place in
England, during the last eighty years, are not owing
to the establishment. For the national church esta
blishment, as such, has always endeavoured, and does
now labour, to the full extent of its power, to crush
all revivals of religion. The treatment which Whit
field and Wesley received from the state clergy, and
their compulsory separation from the national church,
is well known. And it is equally notorious, that the
civil government of England most scrupulously ab
stains, to this hour, from promoting evangelical minis
ters to the high places of the national church. A cer
tain recent appointment to the episcopate does not
invalidate this statement ; for that appointment was
carried, altogether, by family influence, against the
general sense of the cabinet ; and in direct opposi
tion to a formidable petition from the assembled hier
archy, that such a promotion might not be made.
The bishops and high clergy generally, strive to
extinguish evangelism in the state church, by dis
couraging the ordination of pious youth, by suspend
ing curates, by refusing their countersignatures to
presentees, and by discountenancing and harassing
actual incumbents, if guilty of preaching the Gospel

64 IMPORTANCE OF DISSENTERS.
faithfully and zealously. Indeed, now, the British
government and its hierarchy unite io their efforts to
destroy the evangelicals, more cordially, and more
strenuously than has been done before, since the
reign of the most execrable of the Stuarts.
The following observations on the importance and
influence of dissenters in England, are gathered from
a modern popular and able work. They are to be
received with some degree of caution and allowance,
because they are written by an English independent
or congregational minister; who, as such, in common
with the most upright and conscientious men, cannot
divest himself of a bias in favour of the opinions and
habits in which he has been trained, or which he has
deliberately adopted. Nevertheless, they contain
so much truth and good sense, as to deserve the se
rious consideration of every wellwisher to the cause
of pure, evangelical Christianity.
It cannot, surely, be contended that the dissenters
in England owe their piety to the precept and exam
ple of the state church; because that church has,
invariably, proscribed and persecuted the dissenters,
with all the rigour allowed by the various laws of in
tolerance, passed in different ages by the civil
government ; and, sometimes, with a cruelty beyond
the full legal allowance of the most flagitious penal
statutes. That the principles of English dissent have ope
rated powerfully in the world, will not be doubted
by any one, who reflects on their influence in creat
ing a new empire on the American continent; which
has already contributed to the most mighty revolu
tion in the state of Europe, and promises to become
itself one of the most extensive and powerful nations
of the globe ; and to impart its impulses to the other
quarters of the earth, by fostering a republican spirit;
by diffusing the stream of general education; by
strengthening the force of public opinion ; and by
exerting incessantly the paramount power and influ
ence of the press.

TRUE RELIGION. 65
Our present object, however, is to show thejnflu-.
ence of the English dissenting communions upon true
religion; upon sacred literature ; upon public morals;
upon civil and religious liberty; and upon the na
tional prosperity of Britain.
The dissenters have most powerfully promoted the
interests of true godliness; in forwarding which, some
hundreds of evangelical ministers among the state
clergy are now spending their laborious lives. From
the restoration of the second Charles to the rise of v.
Methodism, in the reign of George the second, dis
senters stood alone in defence of the best of causes.
They alone maintained < the depravity of human na
ture, which no baptismal waters could wash away ;
they preached the great tenets of the Reformation,
the doctrines of justification by faith alone, and of
regeneration by the Holy Spirit ; when they were
ridiculed by the established clergy, in defiance of
their own articles and homilies, as the dogmas of
fanaticism ; and they, singly, dared to protest against
the fashionable vices of the nation, the profligacy of
a corrupt or a careless court, at the hazard of being
treated as outlaws from society, and traitors to the
state. Of them may it be said — except the Lord of Hosts
had left us that, remnant, our country had been as
Sodom and Gomorrah. The apostacy of the English
nation from the sentiments and spirit of the Gospel,
had been nearly total, but for the dissenters ; by their
means, almost exclusively, a vital spark of pure evan
gelism was preserved, and the nation is now warmed
into light and lift by the spreading of the heavenly
flame. To have been, for nearly a century, the wit
nesses for God in the land, although prophesying in
sackcloth, was a high honour, and a distinguished
blessing. A thousand dissenting churches were, during all
that time, receiving into their communion, those who
were converted by the preaching of the Gospel among
them ; while no such effects were looked for by the
9

66 SOCIAL RELIGION.

established clergy; nay, were derided by them, a&
the delirious dreamings of puritanical madness and
folly. To form an adequate estimate of all the bene
fits, direct and indirect, produced in the cities, towns
and villages of England, from such a practical testi
mony borne to the most important of all truths, is
beyond the power of human calculation. But he who
exults in the prosperity which now attends the Gos
pel of Christ in various communions, must look back
with veneration to the people, who once professed,
alone, what now forms the general glory of the land.
Though the numbers of the dissenters are more
than doubled, and their activity much increased, it
is difficult to compute their influence, at present, upon
true religion ; because they share it in common with
new sects, and a new party in the establishment
But as their ministers more than double the evange
lical clergy in the state church, it is manifest, that so
many labourers, added to those who preach the Gos
pel in the establishment, must produce the happiest
effects in diffusing religion throughout the nation.
Besides, many of the dissenting churches are as
important now as ever they were; being located
where all around them is still, notwithstanding the
Christianizing tendencies of a state church, as dark
in irreligion and heathenism as before the rise of
Methodism in England, or the subsequent revival of
religion within the bosom of the establishment. The
living fire, so long secretly cherished by the dissent
ers, has communicated its heat to many who avoid
their name. Those clergymen who were the fathers
of the Methodists, might never have been heard of
beyond the boundaries of a single parish, had they
not learned from the dissenters to consider the whole
kingdom as their parochial cure.
it Thr loc^,religion> cherished by dissenters as the
lite of the Christian church, has not only produced
the happiest effects among themselves, but has also
been imparted to the friends of evangelical truth in
the establishment. Many, who remain under epis-

SACRED LITERATURE. 67
copal government, imitate the dissenters in the choice
of their own ministers. Thus several parishes in
London have obtained evangelical afternoon lec
turers; and some livings have been procured for
those who preach the creed to which they have
sworn. The zealous friends to the doctrines of the articles
and homilies, also, observing that the dissenting
seminaries for the ministry are supported by volun
tary contributions, have established a similar fund to
support serious young men, while preparing at the
universities for the ministry of the Anglican Church.
The missionary society, formed among various classes
of dissenters, has given rise to another, confined to
churchmen ; and new proofs are continually exhibited
of the salutary effects of dissent on the cause of true
religion, even beyond the immediate circle of dissent
ing churches.
To the liberal spirit cherished by dissenters, En
gland, also, owes much of its eminence in various
branches of literature and science. They have al
ways exercised considerable influence over the press;
and from the time that Elizabeth compelled the pu
ritans to establish private circulating presses, to the
last of the Stuarts, who subjected the nonconformists
to the tyranny of a licenser, they struggled to avail
themselves qf this mode of appealing to the tribunal
of the public.
It is, however, to their immortal honour, that their
laurels are principally gathered upon Mount Zion ;
and their literary labours, like those of the Hebrew
sages, consecrated to the service of the temple, of
God. Ainsworth, the rabbi of the Independentsv
gave the first specimen of just expositions of Scrip
ture ; and struck out the path, in which Lowth and
Horsley have since made such honourable advances.
Among popular commentaries on the whole of the
Sacred Volume, none can vie with that of Matthew
Henry. The labours of Mr. Scott, an evangelical
clergyman in the establishment, deserve high praise.

t)ii BODIES OP DIVINITY.
particularly for the valuable collection of marginal
references ; by which he has far surpassed Brown,
on whose shoulders, however, he had the advantage
of standing.
No work on a single book of Scripture is equal to
Dr. Owen's " Exposition of the Epistle to the He
brews;" valuable on many accounts, but chiefly for
diligent research into the mind of the Spirit, ex
pressed in the Scriptures. Doddridge and Guyse
are celebrated commentators on the New Testament;
and if Scottish presbyterians be accounted dissent
ers, Brown, Macknight and Campbell deserve ho
nourable mention, as valuable writers on the Christian
Scriptures. Dr. Taylor's Hebrew Concordance has
afforded great assistance in the study of the Old Tes
tament; and Dr. Ashworth's Hebrew Grammar is
still in general use.
Nearly all the bodies of divinity in the English
language, are the productions of dissenters. Baxter,
Lawson, Ridgley, Gill and Watson, have each given
systems of theology, valuable, as presenting a com
prehensive view of the whole subject ; however ob
jectionable as distorting particular parts. In the
philosophy of theology, president Edwards, and Dr.
Williams,his editor and commentator, are unrivalled.
The establishment might have borne the palm in de
fending the outworks of Christianity, but for Lardner's
" Credibility of the Gospel," which is as valuable for
its aid to other advocates of the Christian Revelation,
as for its own intrinsic merits.
Of detached theological publications, the far
greater part have been written by dissenters, if we
include the ponderous folios of Owen, Howe, Baxter,
Flavel, Bates, and many others of nearly equal worth.
That the most popular published sermons should be
preached by dissenters, might have been expected ;
since preaching is deemed of more importance by
them than it is in the establishment, where the liturgy
is generally considered as more than a sufficient
substitute.

REV. THOMAS SCOTT. 69
The Rev. Thomas Scott, who was regularly bap
tized, and as regularly bred up a formalist, and as
such took orders in the church of England, but was
afterwards awakened, and being regenerated by the
Holy Spirit, was converted unto God, says, in his in
teresting, instructive and awful narrative, "The
Force of Truth," — some time in November, 1777, I
was, by a then unknown friend, furnished with a con
siderable number of books, written, in general, by
the old divines, both of the church of England and of
the dissenters.
To my no small surprize, I found those doctrines,
now deemed novel inventions, and called methodisti-
cal, discoursed of in these books as known and al
lowed truths; and that thesystem, which, despising
to be taught of men, and unacquainted with such au
thors, I had, for near three years together, been ham
mering out for myself, with no small labour and anx
iety, was ready made to my hands, in every book I
opened. I do not wonder that the members of the
church of England are generally prejudiced against
the writings of dissenters, for I have been so myself
to an excessive degree.
We imbibe this prejudice with the first rudiments
of instruction, and are taught by our whole educa
tion, to consider it as meritorious ; though, no doubt,
it is a prejudice, of which every sincere inquirer af
ter truth ought to be afraid, and every pretended in
quirer ashamed; for how can we determine on
which side the truth lies, if we will not examine both
sides ? Indeed, it is well known to all those who are
acquainted with the church histories of those times,
that, till the reign of James the first, there were no
controversies between the established church and
the puritans, concerning doctrines ; both parties being
in all matters of importance, of the same sentiments ;
they only contended about discipline and ceremo
nies, till the introduction of Arminianism gave occa
sion to the Calvinists being denominated doctrinal
puritans.

70 HORROR OF CALVINISM.
To this period, all our church writers were Cal-
vinistical in doctrine ; and even after that time, many
allowed friends to the church of England opposed
those innovations, and agreed in doctrine with every
thing above stated. Let it suffice, out of many, to
recommend the works of Bishop Hall, especially, his
Contemplations on the Life of Jesus; a book not ea
sily to be prized too highly; and Dr. Reynold's
works. To these no true friend of the church of
England can reasonably object; and, in general, I
believe and teach nothing but what they plainly
taught before me.
In these United States, we have no dissenters, be
cause we have no national church establishment
linked with the civil government; the federal con
stitution having put all religious sects upon an equal
political footing. But our modern fashionable theo
logians, in the American-Anglo-Church, entertain, to
the full, as great a horror of Calvinism, as do any of
their brethren in the Anglican establishment. Nay,
some of the very slenderest, most unfledged, and cal
low divines, who might answer to Pope's definition of
Entinck, the dictionary maker, as one who may possi
bly understand the meaning of a single word, but,
certainly, not the meaning of two words put together,
— affect, in defiance of bishop Horsley's emphatic
caution, to prattle about " the absurdity, the weak
ness, the inconclusive reasoning, the narrow capa
city," and so forth, of Calvin, Knox, Owen, and many
other of the brightest luminaries that have ever blaz
ed as beacon-fires, in the Christian hemisphere.
It is no breach of charity to say, that the minuter
formalists, who instruct their auditors on the Sab
bath, with a meagre compound of diluted ritual and
attenuated morality, could not, possibly, by the se
verest stretch of their natural and acquired under
standing, be made to comprehend one solitary link
in the chain of argument, employed to bind together
a single proposition in the entire system of theology
embraced by those great men. against whom they so

\ PUBLIC MORALS. 71
incessantly and so flippantly babble. But » there is
no slander in an allowed fool, though he doth nothing
but rail." " Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will. have his day."
.While the devout Christian regards the prayers
of the faithful, as an inestimable blessing to their
country, the mere politician values religion only for
the sake of the superior morals which it inculcates
and inspires. Industry, essential to the cultivation
of the soil, and to the progress of arts, manufactures
and commerce, is seldom carried to its utmost limit,
except under the influence of religious principle.
The temperance and frugality which husband the
produce of labour, and leave to the individual a sur
plus, to supply the demands of the state, must pro
ceed from the prevalence of mind over the senses ;
and the good order, which frees a government from
the fear of open insurrection, or of secret crime, is
most effectually secured by the fear of that Supreme
Ruler, who can equally detect covert villany, and
punish prosperous violence.
That dissenters are not, as a body, chargeable with
open vice, is virtually acknowledged by their ene
mies, who accuse them of hypocrisy, which conceals
odious tempers under a decent exterior. But, as
the national church avowedly embraces the whole
population of the country, it must have the character
which belongs to the nation ; so that declamations
against the vices of the land, fall, ultimately, upon
the church establishment, which claims the aggregate
body of Englishmen as her children.
When excommunication was practised, its thun
ders fell, not on notorious sinners against morality.
but on rebels against ecclesiastical authority ; — and
now, that its thunders are silent, all, who are not
avowed dissenters, are deemed members of the state
church; from the splendid profligates, among the
aristocracy, whose divorce bills continually occupy

72 NATIONAL CHURCH CHARACTER.
the attention of parliament, down to the convicted
felons recorded in the Newgate Calendar. While
this scandal necessarily cleaves to national churches,
it prevents them from practically prdmoting the cause
of morals, whether public or private, by excluding
from their communion those, who grossly violate the
pure code of ethics, which they may publish from
their pulpits.
But the dissenting churches can follow up the mo
ral doctrine, which all parties profess to inculcate,
by the • strictest discipline. As excommunication,
among them, involves no injury to civil rights, it is
practised, whenever the vices of a member disgrace
the body. Knowing themselves to be objects of no
tice and of eensure, dissenters are unwilling to be
identified with the loose and immoral ; and within
the limits of a single congregation, the character of
an individual cannot be long unknown. The evan
gelical dissenting churches, whether presbyterian, or
independent, or methodist, feel themselves bound by
the authority of Scripture, to put away from them a
wicked person ; and even the less honourable mo
tive of zeal for the party, would induce any sect to
watch over its moral reputation, as essential to the
accession of proselytes, and the preservation of its
own members ; since the grossly profligate will cease
from all profession, or sink into the easier and more
fashionable religion of the state church.
While, therefore, some are deterred from vice by
fear of exclusion from a society composed of their
most intimate acquaintances, friends or relations;
those who are lost to fear or shame, usually abandon
the dissent, and transfer their character and influence
to the establishment. If, on these accounts, the inte
rest of morality is more powerfully promoted by dis
senters than by churchmen, therefore is so much odium
attached to dissent. For while the religious con
demn and abhor every species of vice, the vicious
endeavour to retaliate, by pouring ridicule and ca
lumny upon the stricter profession of religion.

• , GOOD EXAMPLE. 73
>, Hence the national rage against the nonconform
ists! at the restoration of the second Charles. Had
they joined the revels of the profligate monarch and
his infamous court, their dissent from the state reli
gion, which he, as defender of the faith and supreme
head of the church, established, would have been a
.Jpfikl crime ; for while he was reconciled to the
church of Rome, he was quite cordial with the church
of England. But they wounded his pride, and stung
||s conscience, by moral conduct too far elevated
above his own; and therefore aided, nay urged on
ward by his established hierarchy, he sought to
quench every ray of evangelical light, and truth, and
purity, in the tears and blood of the persecuted dis
ciples of Christ.
.For the same reason, dissenters are unpopular now ;
especially in villages and small towns, where men are
better acquainted with the characters of each other
than in great cities. The supporters of the village
alehouse or theatre, are the greatest enemies to those
who regularly attend the meeting-house ; and who are
often reminded by rude and insolent treatment, as
they pass, in their way to the sanctuary, the Sunday
tipplers, or combatants in rustic games, how hateful
their superior strictness in observing the Lord's day
i$> to those, who are lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God.
Good example, however, has a beneficial influence
even when most hated. The societies for reforma
tion, which sprung up immediately after the revolu
tion in 1 688, were the first fruits of the superior moral
sense, preserved in England by the dissenters ; and
the strict manners of the methodists, who emanated
from these societies, may be traced to the puritans.
The modern associations for the suppression of vice,
and for the observance of the Sabbath, find their most
zealous members and patrons among the dissenters,
whoc have, by these and other means, elevated the
standard of public morals. And as the Reformation
compelled the popish clergy to adopt a more correct
10

74 CIVIL LlBERTV.v
exterior ; the influence and increase of dissenters
often obliges the established clergy to regulate their
conduct, so as to avoid odious comparisons. Even
this constrained morality is advantageous to society ;
because, although it wilLwof render either the parson
or his parishioners real Christians, it precludes the
triumphs of avowed and open vices, which would
otherwise be sanctioned by usage and custom, as by
common law. "
Even the infidel tory, Hume, who has so zealously
laboured to whitewash the Stuarts, acknowledge*
that the English owe their free constitution- to |he
struggles of the puritans. And the dissenters have
the same civil right as others to vote for legislators,
who will express their mind in the debates of the
senate. This right they have generally exercised) in
favour of civil liberty. And if, as Fuller observes,
in all political changes the pulpits of the established
church are made of the same wood as the council
board ; it is well for the liberties of England, to have
other pulpits, which do not resound with panegyrics
upon despotic measures. -l-< .,¦,
Mr. Howe, whose penetrating eye had seen
much of the interior of courts, declared, that the
great cause of the hostility of governments to dissen
ters, was their known abhorrence of arbitrary rule.
The tyrannous house of Stuart reproached* therm as
an unyielding race, who could not be won to sacri
fice their country's liberties; and the high tory
churchmen, who favoured the exiled dynasty, have
ever been implacable foes to the cause of dissent."
But princes, the least unfriendly, to the liberty of
the people, have always been most desirous of ex
tending the benefits of the toleration act, andt of
abolishing the odious and impolitic restrictions ; of
the test-laws; and the most zealous partisans for
public freedom have usually deemed it consistent! to
advocate the cause of dissenters. As the very exist
ence of churches, dissenting from the state religion,
is an avowal of the duty of thinking for ourselves.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 7/l
and of the right of differing in matters of religious
conscience, from our civil rulers, the patriot prince,
or minister, alone, can look favourably on this indi
cation of a free spirit, — while the lovers of passive
submission, of exclusive claims, of church establish
ments, must regard it with abhorrence and alarm.
If the mere political reformer denythe obligations
of England to the influence of dissenters in the civil
state, the Christian patriot must own religious liberty
to be the offspring of dissent. The puritans and
nonconformists pleaded only for the right of enjoy
ing their own sentiments, because they were true1;
but the dissenters, their successors, have added the
benevolence that contends for the liberty of every
man to profess whatever he thinks requisite to his
own eternal safety.
Nay, even within the pale of the establishment,
dissenters have diffused a portion of religious liberty.
So much has the continual increase of separatists
lowered the haughty tone of the ultras and formalists,
among the English hierarchy, that they now profess
to plead for their own existence. It is highly con
soling to observe the influence of dissenters, in com
pelling the establishment to be less notoriously rigid
towards her own sons. It is now full half a century
since the first faint appearance of the evangelicals
among the state clergy, Whohave, at length, increas
ed into what the formal dignitaries denounce, as a
dangerous schism in the establishment.
But instead of the sterner inquisitions, which cast
out the puritans, and cut off the nonconformists, the
present ecclesiastical governors of England have re
course to such paltry persecution of stipendiary cu-
io-ates, and pious presentees, as fully demonstrates
their own fear and weakness, as well as their hatred
to the ; doctrines of the reformation, contained in
•their articles, homilies, and liturgy. Whatever incli
nation! the formalists exhibit to expel the evangelical
clergy from the establishment, they dare not, now,
by another Bartholomew-act, give ihe dissenters a

76 CHURCH EVANGELICALS.
decided preponderance, by adding to their numbers
such a formidable host of piety, talent, learning,
wealth, wisdom, influence, and power. »
Nations are, too generally, supposed to prosper, in
proportion as they extend their conquests ; yet it is
not the extent of territory, but the number of people,
their industrious habits, their correct morals, their
superior comforts, and their intellectual eminence?
which form the prosperity and permanence of a na
tion. The voice of history attests, that these import
ant objects have been always promoted, precisely
in proportion as religion has prevailed. But nations
cannot expect the advantages of religion, unless they
afford it the protection and liberty, which it demand^
deserves, and repays.
While Spain, by completely extinguishing the free
spirit of the reformation, sunk, in spite of her im
mense physical advantages, into a feeble, decrepid
state, — Holland, by a more liberal policy, rose to a
rank far beyond its mere territorial, claims. The
spirit of religious liberty, cherished by dissenters, in
spite of all the efforts of the church establishment
to crush it beneath the iron hooves of persecution,
enabled the little British Isles to contend success
fully, during five and twenty years of unexampled
warfare, against the portentous power of revolution
ary France.
The mental vigour, produced by free discussion of
the most important of all subjects, religion, is not
only favourable to intellectual eminence in every,
other department, but is, also, an incitement to phy
sical exertion, multiplying the productions of the
soil; while the temperance of religious sects hus
bands private capital, the germ of national wealth.
The full effects of this spirit may be seen in these
United States ; where the men, driven from England
by an intolerant and persecuting church establish
ment, have, in their descendants and followers, grown
up into a mighty empire, which regards religious
liberty as its palladium; and suffers no exclusive,

NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 77
national sect to impede productive industry by ah
oppressive tithe tax; or to proscribe the effectual
exertion of public talents by religious tests*"
Besides exciting a disposition for physical and
mental exertion, the dissenters have promoted; na
tional prosperity, by the free spirit, which has com-
pelled the British government to respect public opin
ion ; and thus, often prevented despotic measures at
home, and destructive schemes. abroad. The royal
and clerical persecutors, who revoked the edict of
Nantz, signed the death warrant of the sixteenth
Louis. And had not the efforts of the Stuarts, and
of their established church, to crush the dissenters,
been foiled by the revolution, which brought in Wil
liam of Orange and religious toleration, England,
probably, long ere this, would have been bleeding at
every pore, under the stabs and gashes of her radical
assassins. So intimately connected are clerical op
pression and* infidel revolution.
If, unhappily for France, her ignorant princes, and
bigoted priests, discovered the value of their protest
ant countrymen, only by their loss, — it» is well for
Britain, that her civil government and church esta
blishment have not been left to learn how much more
pernicious would be the repeal of the toleration act^
than was the revocation of the edict of Nantz.
The dissenting congregations of England, consist
ing, almost entirely, of those, to whom religion has
given abundance, and taught benevolence ; or of
such as feel it their duty to work with their hands,'
that .they may eatstheir own bread, and have to give
to him that needeth ; do not contribute to swell the
multitude of those who live on the parish, but help
to feed the poor, as well as to maintain the priest
hood, of another communion. And it is susceptible
of proof, that their industry, capital, mental energy,
arid public spirit, give greater circulation tb wealth,
and more impulse to commerce, manufactures, and
national revenue, than is derived from an equal num
ber in the established church.

78 CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS.
These, and similar considerations should induce
the dominant communion to feel towards those who
dissent from them, that spirit of charity, which nei
ther envies their liberty, nor repines at their pros
perity. And hence, dissenters should learn to im
prove to the utmost, their advantageous distinction;
and never forfei t the character of public benefactors, ,.
whatever treatment they may receive from the rest
of their countrymen ; remembering, that the; God
whom they serve, has decreed, that " his people shall
be among the nations as a dew from the Lord, as
showers upon the grass, which tarrieth not for man.
nor waiteth for the sons of men."
If the want of a church establishment necessarily
tends, either to wear out or to prevent the existence i
of Christianity in a country, how happens it that; the
Anglican Church, ever since its establishment at the
Reformation, has so generally persecuted pure, evan
gelical religion ; whether detected in its own mem
bers or' in those of other communions?
A very brief eyeglance at the ecclesiastical his
tory of the church of England, would show, that a
pure faith and a holy life are not always in the best
possible odour with a national establishment. The ;
Anglican Church kept up a pretty steady and unre
mitted fire of persecution against Christian piety,<jj
under the Tudors and Stuarts; from the ejecting of
the puritans by Elizabeth, to the Bartholomew and
other flagitious acts of the last Charles and James. *
And although the toleration act of the third Wil
liam prevents open and avowed legal persecution,
either of dissenters or of conformists ; yet the British
government, at this hour, cautiously abstains from pro
moting evangelical men ; men who support the Bible
Society, missions to the heathen, the instruction of,
the poor, and every other means of extending the Re
deemer's kingdom ; and the English bishops, gene
rally, labour strenuously to stifle every spark of
evangelism in the state church ; by throwing obsta-

PERSECUTING, CHURCH.

79

eles in the: way of pious candidates for orders; by
driving curates from their dioceses ; by refusing to
countersign the testimonials of presentees ; and by
frowning upon incumbents, who plead guilty to the
charges of preaching the pure Gospel, and of per
forming faithfully their pastoral duties.
William of Orange was a stanch friend to reli
gious toleration, and would not permit any persecu
tion for conscience's sake during his reign ; for which
he was continually vilified and calumniated, as long
as he lived, by the great body of the established
clergy. Whereas Ann, a veritable Stuart, weak, bi
goted and intolerant, was a prodigious favourite with
all the ultras, and high-flyers of the state church.
* Before we glance at the brief outline of facts,
showing how much the Anglican Church establish
ment has injured herself, and the whole British em
pire, and the best interests of Christianity, by her
own formalism, and persecution of other religious
sects, it is but justice to premise, that the house of
Hanover, treading in the footsteps of the illustrious
William, the great father of English toleration, has
always discouraged persecution on account of reli
gious creeds and opinions.
The primary act of the reign of George the first,
was to defeat the schism bill, an iniquitous measure,
with which Ann, a silly woman, and, like her father,
fraudulent and persecuting, closed her mischievous
life. The infidel St. John, whom Ann made viscount
Bolingbroke, stood forth, at this time, the sanctimo
nious champion of the established church of England.
Ann's cabinet ministers, the civil guardians and
patrons of the ecclesiastical establishment, having
planned the destruction of the dissenters, deemed
the means, most effectual for the, accomplishment of
their nefarious scheme to be, the depriving their
children of an education, according to their own prin
ciples; and reducing them to the alternative of re
maining untaught, or of being episcopally trained.

80 SCHISM BILL.
A clause was, therefore, inserted in the bill,
brought into the house of commons by Sir William
Wyndham, on the 12th qf May, 1714—" that no per
son should keep any public or private school, or
seminary to teach or instruct youth, as tutor, or
schoolmaster, unless he subscribed a declaration,
that he would conform to the liturgy of the church
of England, as by law established, and have a li
cense from the archbishop, bishop, or ordinary of the
place, under his seal of office ; under penalty of
three months imprisonment, on conviction of teach
ing without these qualifications. No license - could
be granted, unless the applicant produced a certifi
cate, that he had received the Anglican Church Sa
crament within the year. If, after this, the schools
ihaster was present, at any conventicle, or worship,
other than that of the English church, he was liable
to three months imprisonment, and thenceforth, dis-,
qualified for teaching. The next clause provided,
that if any one so licensed, should teach any other
than the common prayer book catechism, his license
should be void, and he be liable to the penalties of
4he act. -,
Cruel and shocking as are these provisions, thel
bill was yet more severe, as it was drafted by bishop)|
Atterbury, lord Bolingbroke, and sir William Wynd-*
ham ; but Harley, lord Oxford, expunged the most-
persecuting clauses, that had been penned by ; a
bishop of a protestant establishment, and an infidelj
lay peer, sitting in felicitous conjunction for the sup
port of the national church. ,,,
The bill was carried through the house of conv>>
mons, by two hundred and thirty-seven against one
hundred and twenty-six votes. In the house of
lords, the atheist, Bolingbroke, and the bishop of
London, spoke stoutly in support of the bill ; tKe
worthy prelate urging, that the dissenters made this,,
measure necessary, by their endeavours to propa
gate schism, and draw churchmen's children to their
schools.

PROTEST OF THE LORDS. 81
1 'The dissenters were not permitted to be heard by
counsel against the bill; and the motion of lord
Halifax, to allow them schools for the instruction of
their ' own children, was rejected. The bill Was to
extend to Ireland;' and was finally carried by seven
ty-seven against seventy-two votes. On the 2.r)th
of June, 1714, it received the royal assent, and was
to go into operation on the first of August following.
"Twenty-six lay peers, and five bishops, namely, of
Ely, Bangor, St. Asaph, Landaff, and Lincoln, en
tered their protest against this act, on the lords' jour
nals ; because they could not apprehend the danger,
recited in the bill, to ensue from the dissenters to
the church and state, since no dissenter can, by law,
hold any station likely to render him dangerous.
And if dissenters were dangerous, experience proves
that severity is not so effectual to reduce them to the
national church, as kindness; more dissenters having
been reconciled to the church, since the act of tole
ration, passed the 24th of May, 1689, than in all the
time, since the act of uniformity, passed in the begin
ning of Elizabeth's reign, to the time of passing the
toleration act : scarcely one considerable family in
England being now in communion with dissenters.
Severity may make hypocrites, but not converts.
Nay, if severity could be supposed ever to be of use,
this is not the time for it, when we are threatened
with much greater danger to our chureh and nation,
(from the ascendancy of France, and the infection of
popery,) against which protestant dissenters have
joined, and are willing to join with us in our defence ;
we 'Should not drive them from us by enforcing a law
against them, compelling them, either to breed their
children in a way they do not approve, or to leave
them uninstructed.
-This was little expected from the -established
church, after the act of toleration, and repeated
declarations from the throne and parliament, against
all persecution, Jwhich is the peculiar badge, the'
avowed doctrine and practice of the Roman church.
11

82 POPERY SCHEMES.
In all instances of making aud executing laws against
dissenters, the design was to weaken the church, and
to drive them into concert with the papists,' for its
destruction. Such was the- suggestion of popish
councils, to prepare them for the successive declara
tions of Charles the second, and for the one issued
by James the second, to ruin- all our civil and reli
gious rights. And we cannot think the contrivances
Of papists to subvert, are the means to preserveiour
church ; at a time too, when we are more in dangf^
of popery than ever, by the designs of the pretendfi$;j:
supported by the French king, who is engaged to "*
extirpate our religion ; and by great numbers in
England, professedly in his interests.
But if the dissenters should not be provoked* by
this severity to concur in their country's destruction,
and the overthrow of protestantism ; yet this! bill
may drive them from England, to the prejudice of its
manufactures, which, having been gained by perse
cution abroad, may be lost by persecution at home.
In Ireland, the consequences of this bill may! be
fatal, since the papists there far outnumber the pro
testants, of all denominations ; and if the dissenters
be treated as enemies to that church and state, with
whom they have always joined against the enemies
of their common religion, the protestants, thus unne
cessarily divided, are exposed to another massacre,
and their religion to extirpation. And the Scots,
whose national church is presbyterian, will not, very
heartily, join with us in our defence, when they see
how hardly we treat those of the same nation,! the
same blood, and the same religion. It is the mofce
grievous to the protestant dissenters in Ireland to be
thus excluded from all toleration, because the popish
priests are registered, and exercise their religion un
molested. It would be difficult to find, in the penal code of
any country, a law more iniquitous than this schiM
bill of Bolingbroke, Atterbury and Ann. The En
glish dissenters had, from the revolution, enjoyed the

CHURCH CATECHISM. 83
benefits of the toleration act, gratefully and peace
ably. They neither opposed nor intrigued against
the government, as did the great mass of the esta
blished clergy, during the whole reign 'of William.
As a reward for their loyalty, the state church, in
conjunction with an avowed, unprincipled, profligate
infidel, who hated and reviled Christianity in every
form, brought forward and enacted a law for their
destruction. A law, full of the most odious and des
picable provisions; a law to deprive, parents of the
right of educating their own children, and of consign
ing them to the tuition of persons of their own reli
gious persuasion ; a law forbidding ministers to teach
any other catechism than that contained in the com
mon prayer book, which exhibits, by no means, so
comprehensive a system of Christian instruction as
do the catechisms of many other protestant churches ;
and which is far inferior to those of Edward the
sixth, and of dean Nowell; a law rendering the
teacher of any other catechism, however excellent,
liable to imprisonment, and incapacity for further
tuition ; a law depriving, at one blow, many who had
dedicated their time and talents to the instruction of
youth, of all means of subsistence, and consigning
them, their wives and little ones to hopeless penury,
for no crime, and without a cause ; a law discourag
ing the diffusion of learning, when at least one-fourth
of the population of the British isles could not master
the alphabet; a law framed too after the most so
lemn promises given by both houses of parliament,
and by the queen herself, that the aet of toleration
should remain inviolate.
¦What might have been the consequences of this
flagitious bill, conceived in the tender mercies of the
established church, is, fortunately for England, only
a matter of conjecture ; for on the first of August,
1714, the day on which it was to begin to operate,
Ann passed from an earthly crown, to await her sen
tence at a tribunal where she will be judged, not as a
queen, but as any other sinner. In consequence of

84 CHURCH PERSECUTION.
the accession of the house of Hanover, all the mem
bers of which have been the uniform friends of reli
gious liberty, the schism bill was not allowed to go
into effect ; and of those two stout champions of the
Anglican Church, Bolingbroke and Oxford, the sue-.
cessful plotters against Marlborough, and Godolphin,
and Somers, and the national glory and strength of
England, the one was exiled to France, and 'the>othe?
committed to the tower of London. -=»
It is worthy of notice, that all formalists and per
secutors, in church and state establishments, who
are most zealous for excluding all religious denomi
nations, save their own, from every public place of
profit, honour, or trust, never express the least ap
prehension of evil to result from the indiscriminate
admission of men, who, avowedly, have no religion,
into all offices. Yet those, who own no religious ob
ligation to duty, nor any religious restraint from evil,
must, unquestionably, be the most injurious to soci
ety ; notwithstanding the assertion of M. Bayle, that
a community of atheists would make a much better
body politic, than a community of Christians. An
assertion triumphantly refuted by bishop Warburton,
in his Divine Legation, and by M. Montesquieu, in
his Esprit des loix.
Indeed, as revelation forms the only basis of moral
obligation, public and private, it is quite vain to ex
pect, either individual happiness, or national pros
perity, or elevation of character, in the total absence ;"
of all religious faith and practice. ' *"'
It will be no easy matter, however, to dilute the
venom of sectarian bigotry; at the bottom of which
lies an evil heart of unbelief, and a perfect hatred of
all spiritual things. This unchristian intolerance is
of its father, the devil, who was a liar and a mur
derer from the beginning ;— it is the same spirit, hot
from hell, which has prompted all the persecutions of
the wicked against the righteous, from the time when
Cain slew his brother, because Abel's heart was bet
ter affected towards God than his own, down to the

JANSENIST AND ATHEIST.

85

present hour of controversial misrepresentation,
malice, and calumny. «„
A thorough bred sectarian considers an avowed
infidel, as less obnoxious than the most exemplary
Christian of a persuasion different* from his own.
The duke of Orleans applied to Louis the fourteenth,
to appoint a particular friend of his to a certain
office. The king said no, — because his father con
fessor, a devout Jesuit, had informed him, that the
man was a Jansenist. Sire, replied the duke, my
friend is no Jansenist; he does not believe in any
God, -he is an atheist. The French; monarch, his
most Christian majesty, the protector of the esta
blished church in his dominions, finding the appli
cant only an atheist, and not belonging to the only
portion of the Gallican Church that ever exhibited
any symptoms of Christian piety, forthwith gave him
the desired appointment.
In passing, may I be pardoned for recommending
to my younger readers, Blaise Pascal's " Provincial
Letters." In this book, the lax morals, the sophisti
cal reasoning, and spurious religion, of the Jesuits,
are exposed in the fullest manner, by the united
forces of truth, piety, genius, eloquence, wit, and
learning. In truth, some who are not professed Jesuits, among
our modern heads and guardians of a church esta
blishment, seem to incline as much more favourably
to infidelity and atheism, than to evangelism, as did
Louis and his Jesuitical confessor. Bishop Tom-
line, in the fourth chapter of his " Refutation of Cal
vinism," when treating of universal redemption, elec
tion, and reprobation, says :—
" The preservation of this most pure and reformed
part of the Christian church, the church of England,
must ever, under the blessing of God, greatly depend
upon the exertions of the parochial clergy. Not
many years since, they were called upon to resist
the open attacks of infidelity and atheism ; and, at
present, they have to contend with the more secret,

86 BISHOP TOMLINE.
but not less dangerous attempts of schism and enthu
siasm. In tracing the coherence, says Mr. Humej
among the systems of modern theology, we may ob4
serve, that the doctrine of absolute decrees has ever
been intimately connected with the enthusiastic
spirit :" &c. ' &
The remarks of the Rev. Thomas Scott, upon! this
singular effusion of his own diocesan, are worthy of
remembrance : " Are then," he asks, " the evangea
lical clergy in the church, and the Calvinist dissent*
ers, according to the latitude in which that term is
used in the Refutation, as dangerous enemies to genu
ine Christianity, as infidels and atheists? No; this
is not intended ; but they are as dangerous to the
national establishment. In what respect ? To the
real religious interests of the establishment; that is,
its subserviency to the success of true Christianity*
in England and in the world ? •'¦.
"The evangelical clergy, I must be allowed.! to
think, are peculiarly useful in promoting the genuirisL
interests of the national church, in this respect ; and
would be much more so, were they not systematically \
thwarted and counteracted by powerful opponent^
I must, indeed, allow, that the efforts and success of
the dissenters are formidable to the establishmeMt?""
yet, surely, no Christian will say, that the increase of
avowed infidels and atheists in the same proportion
as dissenters have lately multiplied, would not be far
more formidable to the cause of Christianity, and to
that of the church of England ; or that the nation
had not better be filled with dissenters, holding! the
grand and leading doctrines of the Gospel, in a prac
tical manner, than with infidels and atheists ! >.»
" The advice given by a person high in authority
to one who complained of the Success of dissenters,
was, to owfpreach, ow/pray, and owdive them. This
states the only method of preventing their final pre
ponderance. The English clergy, in general, from
the highest dignitary to the meanest curate, must be
more zealous and scriptural ; more instant in season,

AMERICAN T0MLINES.

87

out of" season, tumifus #x<*ip«? in preaching ; more fer
vent and constant in prayer, and more holy and
heavenly in their lives and example, in all respects,
than, the dissenting teachers are, if they would ef
fectually stop their progress. All other methods will
be found by experience to be mere palliatives.
! "I should not have previously supposed that a
protestant bishop would have deigned to quote the
infidel Hume in such an argument ; who, as might
easily be proved, showed as much ignorance when
he presumed to write about religion, as he did sound
and accurate information on other subjects ; and who
never, throughout his whole history, meets with any
thing like Christianity among papists or protestants,
Calvinists or Arminians, churchmen or dissenters,
but he shows most clearly his bitter enmity and sove
reign contempt of it ; and that always in proportion
as the enemy to be assailed approximates to the re
ligion of the New Testament. I disdain to answer
Hume's accusation of enthusiasm. I only deny its
truth ; and I rejoice that his testimony is against us ;
itis the highest applause which such a man was ca
pable of bestowing on religious characters."
Notwithstanding these conclusive remarks of Mr.
Scott, our American Tomlines persist in declaring
"that the evangelical clergy of the church of En
gland will destroy that church, unless they are speed
ily put down ; but they will take care the evangeli
cals shall never have any footing in their church."
But after all that may be said or done, finis coronal
opus ; and we may, peradventure, yet live to see the
grace of God shed abroad upon our American- Anglo-
Churches ; and if it be, it will, undoubtedly, prove
too hard for its opponents, and their own legitimate
master too.
How ignorant of the genius of Christianity, and
of the very elements of human nature itself, have
religious persecutors always shown themselves.
Their object seems to be, the extermination of all
those who presume to differ in opinion from them :

 .v

88 FRANCIS THE FIRST.
whereas, the experience of all time shows, that mere
persecution has never yet been able to subdue truth,
or to repress error. '
Francis the first, of France, did w£ stifle the flame
of protestantism, even' in his own dominions, when
instigated by the established clergy, in order to ex
piate the crime of some anonymous writings against
the mummery of the mass, he, together with his three
sons, bareheaded, carried a torch in his hand, at a
procession and public prayers; and commanded,
that in the middle of the four most frequented ppJfc;
of Paris, eight of the reformed should be burned alm$**
And thirty-two protestants were, accordingly, com*
mitted to the flames, as an edifying spectacle fori the
good Parisians. .f
This was the natural consequence of so identifying
a national or established church with Christianity^,
as to make a separation from its pale the test of
heresy. How much more execrable is papal than
pagan persecution ! Upon the very substance and
essence of heathen worship did the first Christians
innovate;, denouncing it as absurd, corrupt, ruinous.'
But the innovation of the protestants did not touch
one single, fundamental, essential point of Christian
ity. They separated from the polluted and polluting'
circumstantials of Rome, which her secular, formal,
established hierarchy, by the very fact of persecu-*
tion, exalt above all the distinguishing doctrines of
the gospel. ¦
As persecution and falsehood are inseparably al
lied, Francis, who was courting the aid of the pro*
testant princes in Germany, to support him against
the power of his formidable rival, Charles the fifth?
declared publicly, that he had only burned thirty^
two anabaptists for seditious and turbulent practices.1-
In order to refute this infamous calumny, John Cal
vin addressed to the French king the admirable
dedication to his Christian Instituted ; a composition,
which Alexander Morus ranks with the preface of
president de Thou, Thuanus, to his history, and the

CARDINAL BELLARMIN. 89
preface of Casaubon to his Polybius, as one of the
three masterpieces of the age. Of course Calvin's
lucubrations did not edify Francis, who never read
them"; religious formalists and persecutors having no
desire to be convinced of truth, or induced to human
ity. .•'•'••.'¦
On his accession to the English throne, George the
first,, in answer to an address from the protestant
dissenting ministers in and about London, said, " I
take this occasion, also, to express to you my firm
purpose, to do all in my power for supporting and
maintaining the churches of England and Scotland,
as they are severally by law established ; which I am
of opinion may be effectually done without the least
impairing the toleration, allowed by law to protestant
dissenters ; so agreeable to Christian charity, and so
necessary to the trade and riches of this kingdom."
What anoble contrast this declaration of the En
glish monarch forms to the answer of Charles the
fifth of Germany, when it was represented to him,
that he would ruin his Hungarian dominions, if he
continued thus rigorously to persecute the protest
ants there: — '"I would rather," replied the emperor,
" see Hungary one vast wilderness, than permit a
single heretic to live therein."
t: A speech quite worthy of one of the eldest sons of
the pope ; the Roman pontiff's functions being, says
cardinal Bellarmin, twofold ; the one to feed the
church, commanded iu John, chap. 21, v. 16, Where
our Saviour says, " feed my sheep ;" the Other, to put
heretics to death, enjoined in Acts, chap. 10, V. 13,
in these words, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." But the
benevolent cardinal has not carried throughout his
own mode of Scripture interpretation ; for, according
to this scheme of exposition, it is not only the pope's
function to kill heretics, but likewise to eat all that'he
kills. George the first, also, sensible of the attachment
of the dissenters to his family and government, gave'
them an, annuaL> donation. Five hundred pounds
12

90 GEORGE THE SECOND.
sterling were given in 1720, for the use of the indigent
widows of dissenting ministers.' Soon after, the same
sum was paid half-yearly, for assisting ministers who
wanted relief; or for such purposes as the distribu- "
tors might think most beneficial to the dissenttef |
body. Finally, the yearly donation was incredsM c!
to two thousand pounds ; which is continued to be
paid by the British sovereign at this day.
Nor did George the second degenerate from his
father, in this respect. For when Mr. Whitfield wa§
ordered to attend at the house of commons,, to give
information, as to the state of the new colony* of
Georgia, he was received kindly by the speaker, and
assured that there would be no persecution in
George the second's reign. And when some digni
taries of the established church commenced a pro
secution in the spiritual court, the English Inquisi
tion, against Dr. Doddridge, for the crime- of teach
ing an academy at Northampton,*the king, on being
informed of this exhibition of clerical intolerance',
expressly commanded the prosecution to be stop
ped. Thus did the king of England again confirm the
declaration made by him, on ascending the throne,
^'that, during his reign, there should be no persecd. ,
tion for conscience's sake." A declaration which he
repeated, when it was represented to him, that those
profound theologians, Ithe. English rabble, instigated
by, the established clergy, and country justices, in
flicted their usual arguments of mud missiles, stones,
and manual violence^ upon Mr. Wesley, and his fol
lowers.,. Accordingly, when no redress from<thes%
grievances could be obtained from the rural magis
trates, the court of king's bench did prompt arid
ample justice on the rioters; and the Arminian Me
thodists were permitted to labour unmolested in
their vocation.  > < < ¦ y " ,.-
( George the third, also, in answer to an address pre
sented to him by the London dissenting ministers, on
his accession to the throne in 1760^ said,—" you may

GEORGE THE THIRD. 91
be assured of my protection ; and of my care and atr
tentioo to support the' protestant interest, and to
maintain the toleration inviolable."
Tb the honour of the British sovereign, this decla
ration was faithfully kept; and the religious liberties
of -England continued unimpaired; notwithstanding
the rapid growth of dissenters, owing to the superior
zeal and activity of their ministers;1 as compared
with the listlessness and drowsy formalism of the
great body of the established clergy. The venerable
monarc.li treated with catholic liberality the dissent
ers attached to his royal household. They never ex
perienced the le^ast diminution of favour, on account
of their religious tenets ; but the king took pains to
accommodate them, that they might attend their own
places of worship.
The same liberal spirit towards their domestics
and dependents was exhibited by his children. In
n!802, the duke of"' York, as commander in chief of
the English army, issued a general 'order, that no sol
dier in the British service should be compelled to at
tend any mode of worship, which he did not, or be
-prevented from following any whieh* he did, approve.
It were well, if some of the English nobility and gen
try, attached to the state church, and who persecute
their tenants and dependents on account of their re- >
fligious opinions, instances of which I' myself -saw in
the winter of 1821 — 2, would follow this la'udable ex
ample of their superiors. ,
Nor has the present reign been disgraced by any
.government persecution, on the score of religion.
So far from it, that an attempt at intolerance, in a
very tender point, and under peculiar circumstances,
,met with the most decided disapprobation.
v. In, the year 1820, when party feelings were ex
ceedingly exasperated on all sides, pending the trial
of the late English queen, an unlucky chaplain to a
Scottish regiment, quartered in Edinburgh, ventured
in his prayer, after the close of his! sermon, to beseech
.God that he would have mercy upon and bless her

92 GEORGE THE FOURTH. '
majesty. The commanding officer of the regiment,
a very devout soldier, and a most loyal theologian*
instantly placed the reverend orator under military
arrest; and forthwith sent notice thereof, together
with an account of the flagrant crime committed^ to
the secretary of state for the home department. "J •
'By return of post/fhe' home secretary sent down
an order for the preacher's release, accompanied*
by a gentle objurgation of the learned colonel,
whose zeal, in this instance, had not been according-
to knowledge. How far the inflicting martial punish
ment on a Scottish presbyterian clergyman for exer
cising his vocation in praying forwhom he listethris an!
encroachment upon the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of
the kirk of Scotland, established under the articles oft
union agreed to between the two nations, in the reigrt)
of Ann, is left for the wisdom of civilians to determine;!
The fact of the immediate release of the reverends
prisoner from durance vile, shows that the British
government, under George the fourth, is not inclined1!
to persecute men on account of their religious opi-f
nions or feelings; otherwise, as the causes of per
sonal exasperation in this particular case were abund J "i:
dant, and'had long been known to all the world,!iit"
might have called down a little ministerial benedic-- » ¦
tion upon the luckless wight who had presumed to
interpose his opinion, even in his prayers. i.- *
In 1821, the Madagascar prince, sent to London
in consequence of the treaty between the king of* > >
Madagascar and the governor of the Mauritius, was
present at a meeting of the London Missionary So
ciety; and during the discussion of the members
present, he discovered that the society did not belongi
to the established or state church. He therefore re-^
paired to Carlton-House, to inquire of the king if he
approved of such men sending out missionaries to
the island of Madagascar ?
The British monarch replied, that although thel
society did not belong to his established church, yet
that they agreed with it in all the essentials of reli-

PERSECUTING BISHOPS. 93i
«ion, differing only in circumstantials; that they
would send out quite proper missionaries, and that
any kindness shown by the king of Madagascar to
the missionaries of the London society, he, George
the fourth, would consider, as a personal obligation
to himself. • . •
But the tolerant spirit of William of Orange, and
of all the members of the house of Hanover, during
so many generations, has not yet taught the established
hierarchy to abstain from persecution. In the month
of August,, 1820, an English bishop drove a curate
out of his diocese for the crime of evangelism, in
preaching the doctrines of the Cross of Christ; the;
doctrines of the Reformation; the doctrines of the
liturgy, articles and homilies of the Anglican Church ;
doctrines so humbling to the pride of the unregene-
rate heart; so exclusively glorifying to the Saviour,
as i necessarily to inflame the wrath of every diocesan,
who sets up the mystical notion of baptismal regene
ration, in preference to the Scriptural tenet of spirit
ual con version.
The following letter from the ejected curate
breathes a4ruly apostolic spirit, which, however it
might' now be despised by the lordly prelate who
drove him out, may yet: be remembered on that day,
when both bishop and curate will appear before the
Judge of the quick, and the dead, to render an ac
count of their respective stewardships. The letter
was written in answer to one addressed tothe perse
cuted curate by a pious dayman, attached to a dis
senting chapel, and who had made some kind tenders
of personal service ; dictated by that evangelical spi
rit, which breaks down the sectarian barriers that;
keep asunder the nominal, formal. Christians of dif
ferent denominations.' > * s < - r? -
C  -n, Monday,, August 4ih,* 1820.
J. F..G  , Esq. i^»- .;•--*. ."< ..-•• ."
Mit, dear Sir, — Your kind defter should not haver
remained so long unanswered, had I not been, all this

94 SUSPENDED CURATES.
while, undecided as to my destination, . I have|iat
length, accepted a curacy at P  -, to which place
I propose removing with my family, in about three
weeks. My new rector is  . The duty, I be
lieve, is very considerable, and the salary one hun* ;
dred; pounds (four hundred and forty-four dollars, and.
forty-four cents) a year, without a house; but on
many accounts I rejoice at the prospect before me,
and cannot but see and acknowledge the good hand
of my God upon me, in removing me from O  to
a place of greater labour and trust in the Lord s vine
yard. -•,>"
1 was becoming too much attached to O  , and
the many temporal comforts and kind friends that
surrounded me there; and had long been making no
progress, and, consequently, backsliding in spiritual
things. But the Lord has been digging about me,
and loosening my roots, and transplanting me; and;
all to make me bring forth fruit to the praise of the,
glory of his grace. I was sure the, chastisement wa%
laid upon me in love, and that it would work for my
good in the end; and I am not disappointed; fonit
has been the means, not, as some of my friends hoped,
of advancing my worldly interests, but of adding, to
my spiritual blessings. .»>,<'
And now, my dear sir, I desire to thank you for
all you so kindly say about my coming to E  , and
for the truly Christian love and concern yqu expresj^
for me. I should, no doubt, have derived much comf
fort, and improvement from your society, and others
of the Lord's people, in that city ; but He who fixe§
the bounds of our habitations has been pleased^ to
order otherwise ; and happy is it for us when wear*?
taught, and enabled to choose for ourselves, what he
chooses for us.
As moor-shoqting is begun,; I conclude lord S- — ^~
is in S  , and shall therefore enclose this to him at
A  castle. He is much in my prayers: he is re
membered in my poor way, and commended to Him,,
who is able to make all grace abound to his dear

SUSPENDED ' CURATES.

90

Mr
children. ' I trust dear lord <S  is in that happy
number; but what a snare are rank,* and riches, and
health; and strength, and spirits ! ¦ Still grace will
overcome where it is given ; and even consecrate all
these to the Masters uSe. I have some hopes, and
many fears about him. How happy should lie to
hear of his being, decidedly, afdllower of the Lamb,
arid no longer halting between two opinions.
'•Mrs. C- — - ; desires to unite in kind Christian re
gard to you and yours, with, my dear sir, very truly
and affectionately, your's in the Lord Jesus.
In 1 824, an English bishop, well known for his theo
logical opinions and lucubrations, condescended to
assign his reasons for casting a curatebut of his dio
cese ; a condescension nor often practised by the. An
glican hierarchy, who generally suspend the cleri
cal stipendiaries without deigning to say for what
cause, save their' oWn sovereign will.
In the summer of 1 821, Mr. M  was sent for by
his 'diocesan, and ordered to quit his curacy instant
ly, and never again to preach within the diocese of
L  , because he had been guilty of three irregu
larities; to wit: preaching from notes, interfering
with the parish singers, and reading prayers in an un-
corisecrated place.
In self defence the poor curate urged, that preach
ing from notes was neither uncanonical, nor unscrip-
tural; that it was long the habit of the church of •
Erf|laMf subsequent to the Reformation ;; and that
Charies the second himself had issued his 'proclama
tion against the clergy Ifi/Ming* their sermons, as an
irreverent, lazy^ slovenly custom. That he had only
so far interfered 'with the parish singers, as to induce
them to 'desist" from ' using light,' jiggish," frivolous
tunes; and to adopt graver, and nidre solemn airs.
That, in consequence of some very aged and infirm
wofldei^ who lived at the extremity of the scattered,
straggling parish he seryedi'being unable to come to

96 POWER OF BISHOPS. *».
church, he had read the prayers., and expounded%e
scriptures to them in a private room contiguous to
their dwellings^.
The bishop replied, that he would suffer no cu
rates to preach in his diocese, unless they read ei
ther written or printed sermons ; that he would "not
have the psalms "sung to any methodistical tunes;
and, that he would, on no account, permit the church
service to be performed in an unconsecrated place*.
For which reasons, Mr. M  was suspended from
his curacy, and prohibited from ever again actinias
curate in the diocese of L  . vsflp*
. In the spring of 1822, the Rev. Mr. S  was in
vited to officiate as minister at a chapel recently
erected in B  . under the late act of parliament for
building new churches. Mr. S. waited upon the bi
shop of the diocese in which the chapel stood, to
know when his lordship would give him a license.
The prelate, a younger branch of a noble houses and
illustrious in himself for nothing so much as his per*-
feet hatred of all evangelism, said, that unless he
would promise never to visit or pray by the sick in
the parish where the new chapel stood, he should not
be licensed.
The presentee answered, that he could not, in con
science, make such a promise, because he consider
ed it an important part of a Christian minister's duty
to visit, and pray for and with the sick' and the
afflicted. Whereupon the bishop said, — " then I will
not license you; and, to tell you the truth,4 am1 glad
to get rid of you at any rate." ' •?*
Mr. S*  , accordingly, did not obtain a licen§e|
and the chapel is now possessed by a formal, secular
incumbent, after his diocesan's own heart. '-** !
Is the full, arbitrary.1 unresponsible power,' given
by the legislature to the Anglican bishops, of sus
pending curates; of refusing to countersign the testi
monials of presentees ; of denying licenses to sup
ply new chapels; peculiarly "calculated to rendef
the English established church an effectual instru*

rev. i. p. Jones. 97
ment, to diffuse religion throughout the country, and
to stop the progress of heathenism and infidelity ?
Let the question be answered by the actual state
and conduct of the great body of the clergy and
laity of that church, now, after nearly three hundred
years trial of the experiment.
The arbitrary power given by the British govern
ment to its bishopsVand their abuse of that power,
call forth the4p|iqwing animadversions of the Chris
tian Observer of 1 820. Be it noted, that the Chris
tian Observer is both a competent, and a credible
witness on this occasion ; for he is by far the most
powerful advocate for the Anglican Church and
state establishment, that has yet appeared ; if we ex
cept Mr. Wilks's elaborate and able work.
We cannot, says the Christian Observer, pass over
a circumstance, which has undergone discussion in
the house of lords, and which is of alarming import
ance, not only to the clergy, but to every one con
nected with ecclesiastical property ; or who va-
lues, either the welfare of the church of England, or
the liberty of the subject.
A petition was presented by the Rev. I. P. Jones,
curate of North Bovey, Devonshire, stating that he
had been presented to two livings, value, 500/. per
annum ; one in the diocese of Peterborough, the
other in that of Lincoln ; that he had procured at
regular testimonial, signed by three clergymen, in the
diocese where he officiated; which testimonial
should be countersigned by his diocesan, bishop of
Exeter, who refused; whence the preferment was
lost to the petitioner, it being necessary to present
the livings to another clergyman, to prevent their
lapsing to the bishops of the diocesesj where they
were situated.
Mr. Jones surmised, that bishop Pelham's refusal
was owing to his having attended a public meeting
in favour of catholic emancipation. The bishop,
however, subsequently, intimated, that he refused his
counter signature, because Mr. Jones at that meeting,
>13

98 COUNTER SIGNATURE.
said that nine-tenths of the clergy disliked the dam
natory clauses in the Athanasian creed, and would
rejoice if they were expunged.
Now, whether this be true or false, two points of
this case are alarming; first, that the bishop rests his
justification on his discretionary right to refuse his sig
nature, without assigning a reason. Secondly, that rely
ing on some private, and ex parte communication, he
would not permit Mr. Jones to explain his words,
which, he said, had been misrepresented ; nor t©
produce counter testimony. •»,
Thus, then, all the ecclesiastical patronage in
England, rests on the will, nay, on the caprice, tlie
prejudice, the pique, the political bias, or partial in
formation of an individual. The lord chancellor,
Eldon, himself, who advocated the bishop's right and
power so to act, without assigning any cause, has no
security, that the next clerk, whom he presents to a
living, provided he happen to be evangelical, may
not be rejected for want of a bishop's counter signa
ture. This counter signature has hitherto been deemed
an official act, the refusal qf which subjected a pre
late to a civil action ; but as the law now stands, he
may refuse ; and when the living, to which a clergy
man is presented, lies in a diocese different from that
where he resides, neither he, nor the patron, has any
remedy. As the house of lords refused to inquire
into the subject, who can predict to what extent this
new system of stet pro ratione voluntas may be carried ?
It is surprising that the upper house, generally. such
vigilant and zealous guardians of the rights of pro
perty and patronage, should have so slumbered in
this business. Are the great hereditary patrons pre
pared to see their clerical nominees arbitrarily re-
j'ected, and the money value of their church patron
age reduced in the market, for the sale and barter of
church livings?
v The English bishops, at present, possess a discre
tionary, arbitrary authority, intrusted to no other

CHURCH PERIL. 9§
^rder of men in the British empire ; an authority,
utterly inconsistent with the liberties of the subor
dinate clergy, and the good government of the state
church. We" shall never cease to protest, whether
as to curates or incumbents, against this unwise and
injurious system, whieh tends to convert every epis
copal palace, in England, into an inquisition, or a
star chamber, or a whispering gallery, and renders
every clergyman in the establishment liable to be
come the victim of a secret calumny, or an unau-
thenticated slander.
At least,*let the Anglican bishops be constrained
to. state the crime, to name the accuser, to produce
the evidence. It is too much tq presume of any or
der of men, certes, of men made bishops by political
patrons, on account of borough influence, or family
connection, or personal favour ; in a word, any cause,
save that of evangelical piety; that they never will
be warped, or prejudiced, or misinformed. Even
where they happen to' act rightly in the exercise of
their arbitrary unresponsible power, the benefit of
example is lost to the elergy, and the public, for want
of their reasons being assigned ; if they act wrongly,
the sufferer must pine in hopeless submission; hav
ing no legal right to demand what is his offence, or
who are his accusers ?
The English public is becoming interested, as well
it might, in this question ; and some modifications,
both as to curates and incumbents, will be urgently
proposed. Let the episcopal bench, therefore, do
for themselves, what ruder hands may otherwise do,
eventually, for them. In the present state of things,
they ought not to wish to retain powers, which only
lend, and most justly, to render themselves and their
functions unpopular and odious, without benefiting
either religion, or the established church.
But the universal page of history teaches us that
neither secular governments, nor state churches, are
apt to mend, or reform themselves. Yet the Angli
can Church will do well, at the present crisis, to re-

100 POPULAR OPINION.
member what the elder Pitt told the house of lords,
not long before he died,' and left his mantle to his il
lustrious son — " that unless they reformed themselves
from within, the people would reform them from
without, with a vengeance."
Itis high time for the formal, secular clergy, in the
Anglican Establishment, whether bishops, priests, or
deacons, to learn, that in the existing feverish condi
tion of the world, popular opinion is more powerful
than the coalesced bayonets of allied sovereigns;
and that the church of England cannot long exist,
malgre her political prop in the civil government,
unless she resorts to some other means of support,
than the persecution of all evangelical doctrine and
practice, urged with such unrelenting zeal, by the
great body of the state clergy ; from the lordly pre
late, who drives curates from his diocese, and refuses
his counter signatures, and denies his licenses, alike,
without deigning to assign any cause, save his own
arbitrary will ; down to the most senseless ecclesias
tical scribbler, who pelts the British and Foreign Bi
ble Society with pitiable pamphlets.
If it were possible for persecuting formalists to
profit by Christian instruction, I would recommend
to the perusal of those high Anglican Church func
tionaries, who are always procinct to drive from out
their clerical dominions every established clergyman,
who happens to preach the gospel faithfully, the fol
lowing observations from Mr. T. H. Home, the dis
tinguished author of an " Introduction to the critical
study and knowledge of the holy Scriptures."
In his section on scripture parables, Mr. Home
says, the parable of the tares, Matt. xiii. 24, et seq.
refers to the mixture of the wicked with the good in
this world ; when therefore, our Lord intimated in
verses 27 — 29, that it is not our province to judge
those whom He has reserved for his own tribunal ;
and in the 30th verse added, let them both grow to
gether ; he evidently implied, that since God to
lerates incorrigible sinners, it is the duty of men to

INTOLERANCE. 101
bear with them ; the propagation of false doctrines
is an offence against God, who alone is the judge and
punisher of them ; man has no right to punish his
brethren for their sentiments.
How much, a fortiori, is this position applicable,
when the doctrines promulgated are true ; as in the
case of the evangelical clergy in the church of En
gland, whose preaching, their formal brethren in the
establishmentso incessantly labour to stifle in eternal
silence ?>
Mr. Home, also, cites the following explicit decla
ration of the learned Viser, a popish writer, who, in
his Hermeneutica Sacra, referring to this parable,
says— facile apparet, eos huic precepto nequaquam
satisfacerq, qui vi, metu, ac minis, homines student a
sua religione abducere. Here, then, is an instance
of a papist breathing a more tolerant Christian spirit,
than some of the present generation of English pro
testant bishops. :
Bishop Burnet, in his coronation sermon, preached
before William and Mary, when they were crowned,
made, among other valuable observations, the follow
ing remarks, worthy to be recorded for the edifica
tion of all those:, who, in this late age of the world,
still worship, with heart,* and tongue, and handj the
demon of religious intolerance.
To put the frailties of men, says the good bishop,
to trials, in their obedience, that are above human
patience ; to exact of them that which is either im
possible or unreasonable ; and to carry this rule too
far into that which is God's immediate province, I
mean men's consciences ; all this is not the ruling over
men, either as men or as Christians. God himself
has made his yoke easy; and therefore, those who
can pretend no higher than to be his vicegerents,
should not exceed those limits, within which the Au
thor of our^ being has restrained himself. Undue
impositions, and unrelenting severities, or rigour, in
commanding, and -a cruelty in punishing, must find

102 lipsius,
patterns elsewhere than in God's governing the world,
or Christ's governing the church.
If, indeed, all civil governments were as wise, in
respect to the toleration of religious opinions, as the
states of Holland exhibited themselves, in answer to
a request of Lipsius, Christendom would, even now,
present* a far different face from any which she has
yet been enabled to wear, during the whole period
of her existence.
The erudite and consistent Lipsius wrote a book
on steadfastness, and changed his own religious creed
four times. In his work on politics, however, he as
serted, that only one religion ought to be tolerated in
a state, and that all who would not conform to the
established church, should receive no other mercy
than that of fire and sword. Cernheert refuted these
intolerant and impious tenets; which produced a
large crop of controversies, to the great discomfiture
of Lipsius, who, like other formalists and bigots, pre
ferring persecution to argument, requested the issu
ing a mandate, to prohibit the refutation of his own
book on politics.
The Dutch rulers replied to. his petition thus : —
" either the asserted principles are true, and cannot
be refuted ; or false, and the state can expect no in
jury from such a discovery."
But really religious people are sometimes prone
to persecute those who dissent from their creed.
This is, indeed, a lamentable truth, and so far as
pious people indulge themselves in persecution, they
contradict both the spirit and the letter of that
blessed religion, which they profess to believe and
to uphold. It affords, also, an important practical
inference, that if even religious and well educated
persons be propense to persecute, whenever they
possess the power ; what are we to expect from ir
religious, ignorant formalists ? Which is, in itself,
a potent reason why no sect or portion of the Chris
tian church should be so linked with the civil govern-

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. 103
ment, as to be able to gratify its appetite for intole
rance and oppression.
When Luther began his tremendous battery from
the press against popery, Henry the eighth, king of
England, undertook to refute the heresy of the Saxon
reformer. But as there is no royal road to theology,
more than to mathematics, Henry was very roughly
handled by Martin's superior talents and learning.
As a set-off, however, for this lamentable defeat, the
pope conferred upon him the title of defender of the
faith ; a title worn by all succeeding British sove
reigns, and signally merited by those illustrious wor
thies, the Stuarts ; from the first James to Anne, both
inclusive. This first English defender of the faith, having
quarrelled with the pope, for not countenancing his
divorce from Catharine of Arragon, and his marriage
with Ann Boleyn, set up for a reformer ; renounced
all connexion with the bishop of Rome, and declared
himself the supreme head of the church in England.
Accordingly, he manifested his ecclesiastical impar
tiality by butchering alike both protestants and pa
pists. He published the six Articles, generally called
the bloody bill, as containing the creed of his esta
blished church. This law enacted transubstantiation,
purgatory, clerical celibacy, and auricular confession,
At one time he burned half a dozen papists and pro
testants together ; the protestants for believing less,
the papists for believing more, than this law of the
state church allowed.
At length Henry closed a life of lust and blood,
and now awaits his final doom at the bar of that
Judge of the quick and the dead, who awards only
righteous judgment.
His throne was filled by the saintly Edward, when
only a child of nine years ; and the lord protector,
Seymour, and archbishop Cranmer governed En-
glahd in his name. The protestant exiles returned
to their country; and some celebrated foreign divines,
as Peter Martyr, Bucer, Fagius and Ochinus, were

104 READING SERMONS. i
invited to take professorships in the English univer- ,
sities. The king's injunctions were published, or
dering every parish to procure an English Bible, and
every clergyman to provide himself with a New Tes
tament in Latin and English, with the paraphrase of
Erasmus. Preachers were appointed to make circuits through
the kingdom, to expound the Scriptures, and pro
claim the Gospel truths. An English liturgy was
framed, containing a large portion of the Scriptures ;
and a new book of homilies was published; whence
is supposed to have originated the custom of reading,
instead of preaching sermons ; a custom peculiar to
England, of all the European nations. In the Chris
tian Observer for 1804, the respective advantages
and disadvantages o& extempore preaching and ser
mon-reading, are ably and judiciously examined and
balanced. '
The English reformers had been bred in too per
secuting a school to understand the nature of Chris
tian toleration and charity; duties which popery has
always laboured to exterminate from among men, by
fire and sword. The use of the book of common
prayer, and administration of the sacraments, al
though never laid before the convocation, and op
posed by the popish bishops, was enforced by severe
pains and penalties. This book was considered by
some eminent protestant divines, to retain toq much
of the popish odour; and the papists themselves
were persecuted for objecting to it, as setting forth
new and heretical opinions.
The great body of the people, who had been sys
tematically kept down in mental darkness, in full ac
cordance with the popish maxim, that ignorance is the
mother of devotion, were exceedingly attached to
the wakes, processions and holidays, prescribed by
the common prayer book ; and the Romish priests
inflamed them by their pulpit effusions, and incited
them to arms. In Devonshire and Norfolk the rab
ble raised an insurrection, to compel the government

UNPRE ACHING BISHOPS. 105
to prohibit the use of the English Bible, and prayer
book, and the sacramental cup. -
Latimer and Hooper laboured incessantly to
preach the goSpel throughout their benighted coun
try, but the great majority of the English hierarchy
were wofidly remiss in their duty ; since it was ne
cessary to issue an order, requiring the bishops to
preach at least four times a year. An order, nearly,
as neeessary to stimulate the zeal of the present
race of wpreaching bishops in England, as it was,
during the reign of the sixth Edward.
So little was the real spirit of Christianity under
stood by the English reformers, that they actually si
lenced Hooper, the most able, the most laborious,
and the most popular preacher among them ali, be
cause he declined wearingthe popish vestments;
nor was he consecrated a bishoptentil he submitted.
Thus early did persecution lay the basis of separa
tion from the church of England:
At the commencement of the reformation, those
who wished to render the English church still farther
removed from the secular spirit, and the cumber
some ceremonials of popery, than the protestant
leaders thought necessary, were stigmatized as puri
tans ; and driven out of the establishfnent. After
the act of uniformity was passed by Charles the
second, such men were called nonconformists; and
when the toleration act was established, under Wil
liam of Orange, they were denominated dissenters.
These names were originally used as terms of re
proach; for persecution, invariably, adds calumny
to cruelty. During the first ages of our era, Chris
tianity was the emphatic term of reproach, and fur-
'nished to the pagan persecutor a sufficient substitute
for evidence, and argument, and eloquence, and wit.
When church and state had formed an inseparable
alliance, and an irreligious world assumed the name
of Christian, the persecutors of evangelical piety
honoured the faithful servants of their Redeemer
with the various appellations of Lollard, puritan,
14

106 JOAN OF KENT.
pietist, gospeller, methodist, swaddler, Calvinist, and
so forth.
The English reformers seemed to think that the
aid of the secular arm was necessary, to enable
them to propagate protestantism. Accordingly, a
royal commission was granted, to search out all ana
baptists, heretics, and other contemners of the new
liturgy. AmOng others found guilty, was Joan
Boucher, or Joan of Kent, for heretical notions con
cerning the Incarnation; and as she refused to alter
her opinions, Cranmer condemned her to the flames.
But Edward, who appears to have had clearer views
of Christian truth and charity than his clerical ad
visers, when pressed by the archbishop to sign the
warrant for burning this woman alive, cried out,
" what, will you send her quick to the devil ?" And
when, at length, he reluctantly yielded to Cranmer's
solicitations, he burst into tears, and protested, that
his tutor should answer for it before God ; as, in obe
dience to him, he submitted, contrary to his own in
clination. The anabaptists, now called baptists, were perse
cuted by all the primitive protestants. Luther open
ed against them, with his wonted vehemence and
ability ; and other reformers followed his example.
And when the baptists were found proof against ar
gument, the protestants employed the popish method
of reasoning ; and called for the exterminating aid of
the secular sword.
Some of these unfortunate people, having escaped
from the flames on the European continent, fled to
England ; hoping for safety there, in consequence of
Henry's quarrel with the pope. But in 1535, Henry
burned alive fourteen Hollanders, on an accusation
of anabaptism; and ten more escaped a similar
death by a timely recantation. In 1539, thirty per
sons were banished at one time, for opposing infant
baptism. They fled to Delft, in Holland, then under
the yoke of the Emperor Charles, who beheaded
the men, and drowned the women ; as became a

J!

ANABAPTISTS. 107
true son, and a stanch supporter of the Roman su
perstition. v
During the reign of Edward the sixth, Cranmer
Was at the head of that protestant inquisition, which
was first to attempt the conversion of anabaptists, by
dint of argument; failing which, the flames of
death were to conclude their Christian efforts.
Edward died in 1 553, in the sixteenth year of his
age, and the seventh qf his reign. Bishop Burnet,
in his history of the reformation, says — the untimely
end of this good prince was looked upon by all peo
ple, as a just judgment of God, upon those who pre
tended to love and promote, but whose impious and
flagitious lives were a reproach to a reformatioi,.
The open lewdness in which many lived, without
shame or remorse, gave great occasion to their ad
versaries to say, they were in the right to assert jus
tification by faith, without works, since they were,
as to every good work, reprobate. Their gross and
insatiable scrambling after the goods and wealth, that
had been dedicated to good designs, though to su
perstitious uses, without applying any part of it to
the promoting the Gospel, the instructing the youth,
and relieving the poor, made all people conclude,
that it was for robbery, and not for reformation, that
their zeal made them so active.
Probably, had Edward lived, the English reforma
tion would have been carried to a greater distance
from the complicated machinery, and cumbrous
pomp of popery, and approximated nearer to the
clerical simplicity of primitive Christianity. Cer
tainly, after the death of this truly evangelical mo
narch, the reformation of the established church was
Retrograde; as well, under the successors of Mary, as
during the reign of that horrible woman herself.
It does not appear, that the conversion, or spiritual
regeneration of the English people' was very exten
sive. Some of the leading men, both clerical and
lay, were in earnest in their reformation from pope
ry ; as was manifested in their soon after yielding up

108 PROTESTANT MARTYRS.
their living bodies to be burned, rather than re
nounce their faith, and declare their belief in a Sa
tanic lie. But to the great body of the people, it
was little more than a change of political system,
from one state church to another. An immense ma
jority of all ranks, both clergy and laity, were either
papists or protestants, Calvinists or Lutherans, high
or low churchmen, as the existing government mea
sured out to them their legal allowance of establish
ed faith and practice. In many parishes, the clergy
could not, in others, they would not preach ; in most
of them, they were papists at heart, and yet, con
scientiously, retained their benefices under a pro
testant establishment.
Under the bloody Mary, the leading English re
formers evidenced their faith to be of the right kind,
however much they erred, while possessing power,
in persecuting those, who differed from them in doc
trine, discipline, or dress. When Cranmer, Latimer,
Hooper, Ridley, and others, ever to be revered mar
tyrs, passed through the flames to heaven, the burn
ing of their bodies did, indeed, kindle alight, which,
by the grace of God, none of the enemies of pure,
evangelical, vital religion, have been able to extin
guish. The number of protestant martyrs, during Mary's
reign, is computed at two hundred and eighty ; in
cluding twenty-six clergymen, of whom five were
bishops. It ought not to excite surprise, that so few
clergy suffered ; for a national, established, state
clergy, as such, are seldom ambitious of martyrdom,
The greater p^art of them must, always, ex necessitate
rei, be irreligious, secular formalists ; to whom the
ruling power, and the prevailing religion can never
fail to present the charms of orthodoxy.
Even at this hour, when nearly three centuries
have rolled by their tide of time since the commence
ment of the Reformation, a very fearful majority of
the clergy in the Anglican Church establishment, are
merely formal ; and not contented with never preach-r

REFORMATION IMPERFECT., 109
ing the Gospel themselves, invariably, to the extent
of their capacity and poWer, persecute the compara
tively few, among their clerical brethren* who con
scientiously perform the duties of their sacred func
tion. These evangelical ministers are continually
reproached, as being " methodists, calvinists, vital
godliness men, righteous over much, sectaries in dis
guise ;" and I know not what else.
Every effort is made by the formal faction to pre
vent such men from obtaining holy orders ; to starve
them when ordained ; and to hqld them up to the
execration of an irreligious community, by every
species of misrepresentation and abuse. The labours
of Tomline, Marsh, Daubeny, and many others, are
notable instances of the unjustifiable lengths, to
which a controversial and a party spirit will carry
even regular ministers of the Christian sanctuary.
These men, however, understand their business ;
and seem to be well aware of the force of the replv
made by the arch calumniator, in Alexander's court,
to the question, " why do you perpetually calumniate
men whom you know to be honest, since such Calumny
must be harmless, as to them, and recoil upon your
own head?" His answer was, "calumny, continu
ally repeated, is like a deep wound ; the wound itself
may be healed, but there always remains behind a
scar." These tactics are in general requisition against
beneficed evangelicals ; for curates of the same stamp
formal dignitaries have recourse to a much more
compendious method. They suspend them from
preaching ; and thus, so far as they are able, consign
them to penury and famine. To evangelical curates,
located in the diocese of a formalist bishop, might be
applied that fine, though brief description of peril,
originally used in relation to wretches gulphed in
another kind of danger; vntq ex. tixvatato ^ovrott; they
float for ever on the verge of death.
Formalists, in these United States, labour with the
same zeal and perseverance, in railing against evan-

110 FORMAL PERSECUTORS.
gelism, as do their brethren in England. For a form"
alist, whether clerical or lay, is the same irreligious
being all over the world ; and is actuated by the
same deadly hatred of all Christian truth ; the carnal
mind, the unregenerate heart, being for ever at en
mity with God. But where there is no national church
establishment, a formalist has not equal power to do
mischief; is not so strong to extinguish all vital piety ;
seeing that his formalism, in due time, only dilutes
and diminishes his own sect, and helps to swell the
ranks of evangelical denominations, by driving all
serious persons to them.
For, wherever religion is left to find its own level,
without the interference of the secular government,
to buttress up one persuasion and crush the rest,
formalism has no competency to cope with Chris
tianity. It is manifest to an observant eye, says a late able
writer, that there is a deep rooted enmity in all wick
ed men, whether pagans, papists, protestants or de
ists, towards all godly men, of every nation and name.
This enmity, it is true, is not suffered to operate ac
cording to its native tendency. He who holdeth the
winds in his hand, restrains it. Men are withheld by
laws, by policy, by interests, by education, by respect,
by regard founded on other than religious qualities,
and by various other things. There are certain con
junctions of interest, especially, which occasionally
require a temporary cessation of hostilities ; and it
may seem, on such occasions, as if wicked men were
ashamed of their animosities, and were all on a sud
den become friendly to the followers of Christ.
Thus, at the revolution in 1688, those who for
more than twenty years had persecuted the noncon
formists with unrelenting severity, when they found
themselves in danger of being deprived of their dig
nities and emoluments by a popish prince, courted
their friendship, and promised to persecute them no
more. And thus, at the commencement of the French
revolution, deists, papists and protestants, who were

ARCH CALUMNIATOR. HI

engaged in one political cause, seemed to have for
gotten their resentments; all amicably uniting toge
ther in opening a place for protestant worship.
But let not^ the servants of" Christ imagine, that any
temporary conjunction of interests will extinguish the
ancient enmity. It may seem to be so for a time;
and all things being under the control of Providence,
such a time may be designed as a season of respite
for the faithful; but when self-interest hath gained
its end, if other worldly, considerations^do not inter
pose, things will return to their former channel. The
enmity is not dead, but sleepeth.
On the death of Mary, her sister Elizabeth de
clared herself a protestant; but dictated the extent
and mode of the English reformation. In the beginr
ning of the year 1559, she restored the reading of
Edward's liturgy, with the Epistles and Gospel, in
English. By act of parliament, she took that suprem
acy in the church of England, which her father had
bbrrowed from the pope. By this statute she was
empowered to erect a court, which, under the name
of the High Commission, has deeply stained the an
nals of England.
In this court, commissioners, appointed by the
crown, took cognizance of, proscribed and punished
the religion of Englishmen. It was in this court that
archbishop Laud, whose name it is an effort of Chris- "
tian forbearance to mention without an epithet of
execration, afterwards laid the foundation of the over
throw of the English monarchy and hierarchy,, by his
bloody brutality, and persecution of all evangelical
piety and truth.
By this statute, all clerical persons were obliged
to swear to Elizabeth's supremacy; and although
the great body of the national, the established clergy
had been devout papists under Mary, onlv two hun
dred and forty-three were honest enough to abandon
their state benefices, rather than perjure themselves.
The rest, to the amount of some thousands, swore
themselves into substantial protestant livings.

112 HIGH COMMISSION UNIFORMITY.
The reformed themselves now began to exhibit a
diversity of sentiments. Some exiles from England,
during Mary's reign, had formed a church at Frank
fort; where they laid aside the surplice, omitted the
responses of the English liturgy, and chose John
Knox for their pastqr. On the arrival of other En
glish refugees, one of them, Dr. Cox, who had been
tutor to king Edward, and had aided in compiling the
liturgy, insisted upon answering aloud after the mi
nister. Hence arose a division ; Knox and his party
were driven from Frankfort; and Cox and his adher
ents soon disagreed among themselves.
This schism did not abate on their return to En
gland, upon the accession of Elizabeth. Edward's
liturgy was revised, and on the 24th of June, 1559,
established by law, under an " act for the uniformity
of common prayer;" which statute, also, empowered
the queen to ordain further ceremonies and rites.
This law, cruelly enforced^ convulsed the church of
England, for nearly a century ; covered her with the
blood of those whom it murdered ; and increased the
number of those very dissenters, whom it laboured to
exterminate by the sword of persecution.
In the church thus established, many of its clergy
were grieved, that Elizabeth had restored the sur
plice, cope, and other popish vestments, which Ed
ward had put away. These men, who wished to see
the English church rendered still more pure from
the relics of the Roman superstition, were called
puritans ; and as sueh, fell under the censure and
scourge of the secular head of the church ; who
published certain "injunctions" ordaining, among
other matters, that priests and deacons do not marry,
without leave of their bishop and two justices of the
peace ; that bishops do not wed without allowance of
their metropolitan, and the queen's commissioners ;
and that none keep abused images or pictures in
their houses.
So great an advocate for liberty of conscience,
and liberty of action, was this Spinster queen, who

FAMILY PRAYER INJUNCTIONS. 113
discouraged private and family prayers, that all wor
ship might be performed within the consecrated
walls of her churches.
The convocation sate in 1562, to consider the
propriety of further reforming the establishment; but
nothing was done, and the puritans presumed to offi
ciate without the appointed habits. For this contu
macy, the London clergy were summoned to appear
before the ecclesiastical commissio#!fcThe bishop's
chancellor addressed them thus— "Italrnasters, and
ye*inisters of London, the counciPs pleasure is,
that ye strictly keep the unity of apparel, like this
man, (pointing to Mr. Cole, in full dress,) with a
square cap, a scholar's gown, priest like, a tippet,
and in the church, a linen surplice. Ye that will
submit, write volo ; those who will not, write nolo."
On attempting to speak, they were commanded to
hold their peace ; and while sixty-one, out of a hun
dred, reluctantly subscribed, thirty-seven preferred
starving. They gave in a paper, containing their
reasons ; which is preserved by Neale, in his history
of the puritans.
Archbishop Parker, and the ecclesiastical commis
sion caused every one who had the cure of souls, to
swear obedience to all the queen's injunctions; to
all the letters from the lords of the privy council; to
the injunctions of the metropolitans ; to the mandates
of their bishop, archdeacons, chancellors, somners,
and receivers, and to be subject to the control of all
their superiors, with patience.
By such secular interference, the established
church was well nigh cleansed of conscientious cler
gymen. A fourth part of the ministers were sus
pended, and silenced, as puritans. Among these,
were the principal preachers in the nation ; at a time'
too, when not one in ten of the state clergy possessed
sufficient talents and leariiing, to say nothing of their
piety, to compose a very ordinary, and a very dull
sermon. Many of the churches, especially in Lon
don, were shut up ; and often, when the congregation

114 CHURCH VESTMENTS.
was assembled, the minister was forbidden to preach
by the bishop's runners, sent to see that the clergy
dressed like Mr. Cole, tippet wise, and with a square
cap. This pitiful persecution, so alien from the spirit of
a wise and good government, and so directly tending
to stop the progress of religion, roused the hatred of
the people against the popish habits and ceremonies,
enjoined by EJizabeth ; and they demolished cruci
fixes, monuments, and painted windows ; insulting
the regular priests, too many of whom carried under
their conformity clothes, the flagrant characteristics
of ignorance and vice. Some of the ultra, highflying
bishops complained to the court, that they, poor, in
jured innocents! were persecuted, and afraid to stir
abroad, lest the populace might stone them.
Others, however, more especially, Dr. Grindall,
bishop of London, disapproved of the unchristian
spirit and conduct of the government clergy ; and
was as kind to the puritans, as such intolerant times
would allow. The university of Cambridge, also,
exercised its privilege of authorizing ministers to
preach throughout England, without a bishop's li
cense. Hence, many of the suspended clergy tra
velled through the country, preaching the Gospel,
wherever they could find a pulpit.
About the year 1567, arose the sect of the Brown-
ists, or independents, who not only denied the jus di-
vinum of episcopacy, but maintained that the English
establishment itself, was not a true Scriptural church.
In order to convice these heretics of their error, Eli
zabeth had recourse to her favourite arguments of im
prisonment, torture, and death.
She also burned alive some Dutch anabaptists; not
withstanding Fox, the martyrologist, wrote her a let
ter, containing such dissuasives from this horrible act,
as must have softened any human heart, except that
of a thorough bred, established formalist, armed with
power to wreak its natural vengeance upon evan
gelical piety. Fox's letter might be read with profit..

PURITANS AND BAPTISTS MURDERED. 115
by many sturdy polemics and persecutors of the
present day, in the Anglican Church establishment.
Towards the puritans, also, her cruelty was aug
mented ; both parties pelted each other with abusive
pamphlets. Elizabeth's officers searched strictly af
ter the private presses of the puritans ; and the se
verest laws were passed against the general liberty of
the pressj yet the cruelty of the state bishops outran
the zeal of their royal mistress, and passed beyond
the limits, even of the most iniquifous^statutes. At
length, several puritans were executed by order of this
protestant queen. One grievous item in the cata
logue of their crimes, was maintaining the morality
of the Christian Sabbath ; at a time, when several
lives were lost at a bear baiting, on the Lord's day, in
the neighbourhood of London.
In the thirty -fifth year of her reign, Elizabeth
enacted a statute for the punishment of those who
refused to go to the state church. For the first of
fence, an imprisonment of three months is inflicted ;
for the second, banishment; for the third, death.
This act, I believe, has never yet been formally re
pealed. The condition of real religion, of vital Christ
tianity was, of course, not very flourishing amidst all
these contentions, persecutions, and butcheries,
about vestments, habits, rites, ceremonies, and church
government. The great body of the national clergy,
notwithstanding the necessary tendency of a church
establishment to promote piety, and prevent pagan
ism ; were, indeed, a most pitiable set of faithless
hirelings ; in ten thousand parishes there were only
a few hundred preachers. A petition, presented to
parliament, complained, that to fill up the places of
the ejected puritans, the bishops manufactured state
clergy out of the basest of the people ; not only as
to their occupations, they being shoemakers, barbers,
shepherds, and horse keepers ; but also, on account
«©f their vices. In a survey of different counties, a

116 LOW STATE CLERGY.
large proportion of the established clergy are
marked as drunkards, dicers, and burned in the hand
for felony.
Bishop Sandys says, that many people could not
hear a sermon for seven years ; and while they pe
rished for lack of knowledge, their blood would lie at
somebody's door. Yet amidst this famine of the
word of life, Elizabeth prohibited the prophesyings,
or preachings o^ the clergy; for the continuance of
which archbishop Grindall pleaded in vain, to the
loss of his owfnavour with the queen, who proscribed
all as puritans, that went to a place of public wor
ship twice on the Sabbath, and employed the evening
of that day in domestic worship and instruction.
With the character of Elizabeth, as a politician, the
present inquiry has no concern. Doubtless, she had
a strong, clear head, and possessed a sufficient fund
of good sense, to select able ministers, particularly,
Walsingham, and the two Cecils, father and son,
whose genius and wisdom bore England up to a high
eminence among the sovereignties of Europe ; but of
her personal piety her own conduct must create
doubts in the mind of an impartial observer. She
shed too much Christian blood ; was too deliberate,
too cold blooded, too cruel a persecutor, for a reli
gious woman.
Her profession of protestantism was little else
than her own usurpation of papal authority. She
kept images, a crucifix, and lighted candles, in her
chapel, and ordered her chaplain to desist from un
godly digression, when he preached against the su
perstitious abuse of the sign of the cross. She
seemed, like her father, to endeavour to suspend the
religion of England upon her own arbitrary will, and
ever shifting caprice. She spent a long reign in en
deavouring to exterminate evangelism from the clergy
and people; and died, without exhibiting a single
beam of religious triumph or consolation, But we
leave her, with her sister Mary, to the judgment of
that tribunal, which cannot err.

ELIZABETH — JAMES. 117
The next sanctimonious defender of our most holy
faith, was James, the sixth of Scotland, and the first
of England. The reformation, in Scotland, was
popular and parliamentary ; and James had an early
opportunity of exhibiting his kingcraft, on which he
so much prided himself; that is, of denying or dis
guising the truth. The faction of his mother, who
was in the safe keeping of her cousin Elizabeth, was
composed of professed papists, and persons indiffer
ent to ail religion. The rest of the Scottish were
zealous for the reformation, and abhorred Mary.
While the house of Guise was plotting to usurp
the crown of France, and to embroil England with
Scotland, James leaned to the popish interest ; but
when the duke of Guise was killed at Blois, and
Henry the third soon after mudered, and Henry the
fourth became king of France, our Scottish Solo
mon fell into the leading strings of Elizabeth's minis
ters. But no party could ever trust him. He wrote
a letter to the pope, promising to favour the papists ;
and when cardinal Bellarmin published this letter,
after the gun powder plot tria'ls, one of his creatures,
Balmerinoch, took it upon himself, saying, that he
obtained the king's signature to it. without the king's
knowing its. contents.
This tale no one believed, because Balmerinoch
was never punished. James was always suspected
of leaning towards popery, notwithstanding his mi
serable effusions in theology, and calling the pope
antichrist. Yet, whUe he was making overtures to
the popish party, he plotted successfully with the
elder Cecil, and Other leading men in England, to se
cure Elizabeth's protestant throne at her demise.
As soon as he ascended the English throne, he
discovered his hatred to the Scottish kirk, and la
boured to establish episcopacy in its stead. But
these transactions will be considered hereafter, when
the church of Scotland comes under discussion.
Yet this same James had said to the Scottish pres-
byterians— "I thank God. that I am king of the sin-

118 LEANING TO POPERY.
cerest kirk in the world; sincerer than the kirk of
England, whose service is an ill said mass in English;
it wants nothing of the mass but the liftings ;" that
is, the elevation of the host.
From the discovery of the gunpowder plot to his
dying day, he was always talking and writing against,
but acting in favour of popery. But for protestantism,
this supreme head of the English church could never
be induced to exert himself; not even, when his own
son-in-law, the ^husband of his only daughter, the
elector palatine, most needed his assistance; al
though the English natibn was much inclined to sup
port him ; and the struggles of Bohemia against the
horrors of popery, at that time, offered a more favour
able opportunity than had ever occurred, of esta
blishing the reformation in Europe.
Bishop Burnet, in his history of his own time, says,
that James's reign in England was a continued course
of mean practices. The first condemnation of sir
Walter Raleigh was very black ; but the executing
him, after so many years, and after an employment
given him, was a barbarous sacrifice of him to the
Spaniards. The rise and fall of Somerset, and the
rapid greatness of Buckingham, exposed him to all
the world. His letters to his son Charles and Buck
ingham, while in Spain, exhibit the most despicable
meanness. He disgraced England in the eyes of all
Europe, by his folly, cowardice, and fraud; and
while hungry writers flattered him, as another Solo
mon, at home, he was despised by all abroad, as a
pedant, devoid of judgment, courage, and steadi
ness; subject to his favourites and minions; and de
livered over to the corruptions of Spain.
But James's character, as a politician, belongs to
the writers of civil history ; our present concern with
him relates merely to his church supremacy, and his
conduct in that capacity. On his entrance into En
gland, the puritans, who expected at least an absti
nence from persecution, in a king who had thanked
God for being at the head of the sincerest kirk in the

HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE. 119
world, met him by the way, and presented him a pe
tition called the Millenary, conveying the wishes of
a thousand ministers for further reformation.
The universities, on the other side, sent forth their
reply, accompanied with a decree. James appointed
a conference at Hampton court ; and named eight
bishops and eight deans, on the part of the state
church ; and four men on the side of the puritans.
But James, instead of hearing the arguments on either
side, was eager to exhibit his own theological prow
ess, and babbled incessantly about the points in con
troversy ; at which his bishops were so mightily en
raptured, as to declare, that for learning and piety,
he was the Solomon of his age. Bancroft, bishop of
London, fell on his two knees, and said, " my heart
melteth for joy, that Almighty God, of his singular
mercy, has given us such a king, as since Christ's
time the like hath not been." The archbishop of
Canterbury, also, exclaimed, " undoubtedly, your
majesty speaks by the special assistance of the Spirit
of God."
This beggarly blasphemy James was weak and
wicked enough to swallow entire ; and, in order to
show by what spirit he was assisted, he ended the
conference, by declaring, that he would make the pu
ritans conform ; or harry them out of the land, or do
worse. Doubtless, making Christians by act of par
liament and persecution, was the only Scriptural
mode of spiritual conversion, ever acknowledged or
practised by those legitimate heads of the established
church of England, the Stuarts.
Soon after the close of the Hampton court confer
ence, the convocation met, and published one hun
dred and forty-one canons, which were ratified by
the letters patent of the king, as head of the church ;
but not being sanctioned by parliament, they bind
only the state clergy.
Bancroft, now archbishop of Canterbury, perse
cuted the puritans with such effect, that in one year

120 SUNDAY SPORTS.
three hundred ministers were suspended, deprived,
excommunicated, imprisoned, or driven into exile.
In order still farther to show by what spirit he was
influenced; James, in strict accordance with the lax
notions of popery in relation to the Christian Sabbath,
published a declaration encouraging sports on the
Lord's day ; the morality of which day, be it remem
bered, is insisted upon in the articles of that very es
tablished church, whose supreme head he was.
Bishop Moreton drew up this declaration for Sunday
sports ; in which the good people of England were
recommended to keep the Sabbath day holy unto the
Lord, by dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, May
games, whitsun-ales, morris-dances, setting up May
poles, and carrying rushes into the churches.
As James's inclinations always gravitated towards
popery ; and as the greater part of the state clergy
still professed what is now called Calvinism, but
which, long before Calvin's birth, was known in the
Christian church as Augustinism ; and as the puri
tans were no great admirers of the man of sin ; the
royal Solomon, notwithstanding he had sent some
English divines »to the synod of Dort, began to en
courage what is called Arminianism, although it no
more resembles the theological system of James Van
Armin, than it does that of John Calvin. To effect
this scheme, he raised William Laud to the episco
pal bench.
The established clergy, however, whose religious
and political opinions generally coincide with those
of the royal court, seemed inclined to submit to all
the king's extravagant notions of absolute and uncon
trolled sovereignty ; for when a preacher at Oxford
asserted in his sermon the right of the people to re
sist a tyrant, that university passed a decree, " that
it is not lawful for subjects to appear in arms against
their king, on the score of religion, or on any other ac
count;" and all the graduates were obliged to swear
that they would always continue of the same opinion.

ARIANS BURNED. 121
At this period, it must be confessed, the religion
and liberty of England were in safe custody, under
the auspices of the legal head of the established
church; possessing, in the words of the second ca
non, " the same authority in causes ecclesiastical that
the godly (and wwgodly) kings had amongst the Jews,
and Christian emperors of the primitive church."
James, while secretly cherishing popery, in con
tradiction to his most solemn protestations to parlia
ment; while openly favouring Arminianism, in oppo
sition to his own training and declaration in the sin-
cerest kirk in the world ; evidenced his Christian spi
rit, by burning alive an Arian ; and soon after consign
ing another to the flames. He was preparing to burn
a third, when he found that this too close imitation
of Henry and Mary, the two most execrable of all the
Tudors, had roused the public indignation ; aud the
victim of royal polemics was permitted to perish in
perpetual imprisonment.
At the death of Bancroft, Abbot was made arch
bishop of Canterbury; and endeavoured to heal the
deep gashes of the nation, by showing kindness to the
puritans ; by forbidding his clergy to read the decla
ration for Sunday sports; and by opposing the semi-
pelagian, semi-popish theology of Laud.
One main object of James, and Laud, and Charles,
steadily pursued throughout the remainder of James's
and during the whole of his son's reign, was to exter
minate whatever they saw fit to brand with the title
of puritanism ; in which scheme they succeeded so
well as to work the temporary destruction, both of
the monarchy and of the hierarchy of England.
Laud taught both his royal masters to stigmatize, as
puritans, not only the nonconformists, but, likewise,
all those in the establishment who still continued to
eonstrue the state church articles in a Calvinistic
sense, the sense put upon them by the reformers
themselves, and by the great body of their successors,
for nearly a century ; and also, all those who op-
16

122 SCHEMES OF LAUD.
posed the arbitrary measures of an unprincipled and
cruel court.
The independent country gentlemen of England
received the persecuted puritans into their houses,
as tutors to their children; whence was formed a
generation of Englishmen, well imbued with the spi
rit of hostility to all tyranny, both civil and religious.
Some of the puritans, who escaped the fangs of
James, and Bancroft, and Laud, brought hither, to
America, their sentiments and principles; which,
however, in relation to religious matters, time and
circumstance have very materially diluted, in certain
sections of the United States.
Charles the first inherited all his father's notions
about the plenitude of kingly dominion ; but substi
tuted for the light, trifling, undignified manner of
James, a solemn gravity, better suited to his own re
served and haughty temper. He was seldom even
barely civil in his exterior deportment, and generally
bestowed a favour so ungraciously, as to couple with
it the sting of mortification.
His very first act as a king in Scotland, gave evil
augury of his future reign. In 1633, he went down,
in person, to be crowned ; his entry and coronation
were so magnificent, as nearly to ruin the already
impoverished country by the expense. When the
parliament sate, the lords of the articles prepared an
act, declaring the royal prerogative, similar to that
passed in lb06, but adding an act passed in 1609,
which empowered James to prescribe apparel to
churchmen, with their own consent. And in 1617,
the lords of articles prepared an act, that all eccle
siastical affairs should be determined by the king,
with the consent of a competent number of clergy,
and have the power of a law. This act, however,
though passed in the articles, was suppressed in the
house by order of James himself.
The act of 1633 embraced both those of 1606 and
1609. This the earl of Rothes opposed, and desired

CHARLES THE FIRST. 123
the two acts might be divided; but Charles said, it
was now one act, and he must either vote for or
against it. Rothes answered, that the addition was
contrary to the liberties of the church, and ought not
to be made without the consent of the clergy, or, at
least, their being heard. Charles ordered him to ar
gue no more, but give his vote ; which he did, not
content. Some few other lords offered to argue, but
Charles stopped them, and commanded them to vote.
Almost the whole commons voted in the negative,
and the act was rejected by a majority ; which Charles
knew, for he had called for a list of the members, and
with his own pen marked every man's vote. The
clerk of the Register, who gathers and declares the
votes, said, the act was carried in the affirmative ; but
Rothes declared it went in the negative ; whereon,
Charles said the clerk's declaration must stand, un
less Rothes would go to the bar, and accuse him of
falsifying the records of parliament, which was capi
tal ; but if he failed in proof, he was liable to the
same punishment.
This Rothes declined ; and the act was published
as a law, though rejected by the house. Charles',
also, expressed his high displeasure against all who
had opposed the bill. The lords had many meetings
thereon, and concluded that all their liberties were
gone, and parliament a piece of pageantry, if the
clerk df register might declare, as he pleased, bow
the vote went, and no scrutiny be allowed.
It is not necessary to expatiate minutely on the
merciless cruelty of Laud towards all who refused
to bow down to the idols which he had set up. Yet
it would not be amiss occasionally to remind those,
both in England and in these United States, who
worship the memory of that" great prelate," as they
term him, scarcely on this side of idolatry, of his Star-
chamber exploits ; the imprisonments, fines, pillory-
ings, mutilations, burnings, which he inflicted upon
those, who preferred to worship God, in conscien
tious simplicity and purity, to a hypocritical compli-

124 CRUELTIES OF LAUD.
ance with his base mummeries and pagan ceremo
nials ; the cold blooded, malignant delight with which
he entered into his private diary, that on such a day,
at such an hour, some one was branded in the cheek
with a hot iron ; or had his nose slit open ; or his
ears pared off close to his scull ; or had been lashed,
until the naked bones stood out visibly on his man
gled back.
And all these horrible mutilations and manglings
of his fellow-men, by a bishop of the English protest
ant church establishment ! For what ? Because
they were too honest, too conscientious, too intrepid,
to subscribe to all his beggarly popish ceremonials
and mummery ; as the established, formal substitute
for the worship of that Jehovah, who is of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity, and transgression, and sin.
Mosheim, and his translator and annotator, be
tween them, inform us, that in 1625 died James the
first of England, the bitterest enemy of the doctrine
and discipline of the puritans, to which in his youth
he had professed the warmest attachment ; the most
inflexible and eager patron of the Arminians, to
whose ruin and condemnation, in Holland, he had
been singularly instrumental ; and the most zealous
defender of episcopal government, against which he
had been accustomed to express himself in the
strongesfterms. His son Charles had imbibed all his father's worst
political and religious prejudices. All his zeal and
exertion were directed to extend the royal preroga
tive* and raise the power of the crown above the au
thority of law ; to reduce all the churches in the Bri
tish isles under the jurisdiction of state bishops; and
to suppress the opinions and institutions of Calvinism.
The execution of this threefold scheme he com
mitted to Laud, whom, in 1633, he raised to the see
of Canterbury. It is worthy of observation, that
Laud was the first Arminian prelate who occupied
the palace of Lambeth. There had been six pro
testant Metropolitans of England, from the com-

ARMINIAN ARCHBISHOP. 125
mencement of the Reformation to the ascendancy of
Laud ; namely, Cranmer, Parker, Grindall, Whitgift,
Bancroft and Abbot ; all of whom professed to hold
the tenets generally called Calvinistic.
On his accession to the English throne, Charles
was supposed to be favourably inclined towards the
puritans ; for his tutor and all his court leaned to
that side ; and Dr. Preston, the puritan leader, rode
up in the coach from Theobalds to London, with the
king and the duke of Buckingham- But what puri-
tanism could be expected in a man who married a
seducing papist, whose entrance into England, bishop
Kennet declared to be more fatal than the plague ?
It were as easy to amalgamate darkness with light,
as tq reconcile popery with puritanism, or with any
thing approaching to puritanism.
For openly exhibiting Laud's new system of Armi
nian theology, Montague was formally censured by
the English parliament, and done into a bishop by
Charles. Laud's own conduct was sufficient to ruin
any church, however pure and apostolic in doctrine
and worship ; and to destroy a much better king
than Charles ; and to overthrow a much better go
vernment than England ever knew, prior to the revo
lution of 1688. This semi-papist was continually
urging Charles to the commission of illegal, arbitrary,
cruel acts. Many puritans were fined in the star-
chamber, so excessively, as to sink them from afflu
ence to beggary.
Preachers were employed to set forth the divine
right of an arbitrary, evasive king. One Dr. Sib-
thorpe declared, in an assize sermon, that if princes
command what subjects may not perform, because
against the laws of God, or nature, or impossible ;
subjects are bound to undergo the punishment, with
out resistance or reviling.
Charles, of course, was delighted with such an
evangelical exhibition of Scriptural truth, and order
ed archbishop Abbot to license it for the press; but
as Abbot understood his Bible in a sense quite dif-

126 CHIEF JUSTICE RICHARDSON.
ferent from that in which it appeared to the eyes and
the understandings of Sibthorpe, Charles and Laud,
he declined obedience to the royal mandate ; and
was forthwith banished to an unhealthy spot ; doubt
less to enable him the better to meditate upon the
uncertainty of human life.
Charles, in imitation of his father, and by the ad
vice of Laud, published a declaration, encouraging
his subjects to enliven the Sabbath by dancing, masks
and interludes. And when the judges and justices
of one of the largest counties in England remonstrated
against this profanation of the Lord's day, Laud re
viled them as puritans ; and, remembering that he
belonged to the church militant here on earth, col
lared and shook chief justice Richardson so fiercely,
and so perseveringly, as nearly to choke the aged
lawyer with his lawn sleeves.
The Lord's Supper used to be celebrated in the
midst of the churches, at a table ; which Laud re
moved, placed as an altar against the east wall, and
fenced round with a railing. The people were in
structed to bow towards this new altar, and to look
upon it as a place peculiarly and intrinsically sacred.
The pompous ritual of the established Anglican
Church was approximated to that of Rome, and Dr.
Cozens set up in the cathedral at Durham, a marble
altar with cherubim ; a cope, with the Trinity, God
the Father being represented as an old man ; and a
crucifix, with the image of Christ, having a red beard
and a blue cap. He lighted up two hundred tapers
at the altar on candlemas day ; and procured a con
secrated knife to cut the sacramental bread.
Laud punished without measure, and without mer
cy, all who presumed to disapprove of his ecclesi*
astical system. Mr. Smart, a prebendary of Durham
cathedral, was cruelly persecuted for preaching
against its popish rites. And Dr. Leighton, father of
the excellent Scottish archbishop of that name, was
tried in the star chamber, for publishing Zion's Plea
against Prelacy ; and received a sentence, for which

LEIGHTON — PRYNNE. 127
Laud pulled off his cap, in presence of the assem
bled court, and gave thanks to God aloud.
This precious primate of the established church
of England has deliberately recorded in his diary
this righteous sentence, which extorted his gratitude
to a merciful God : — " his ears were cut off, his nose
slit, his face branded with burning irons ; he was
tied to a post, and whipped With a treble cord, of
which every lash brought away his flesh ; he was
kept in the pillory near two hours, in frost and snow."
Leighton was then imprisoned, with peculiar
rigour, for eleven years, and when, at length, re
leased, not by Laud, who never knew what relenting
was, but by the English parliament, he could nei
ther see, nor hear, nor walk.
In 1637, Burton, Prynne, and Bastwick, a divine, a
lawyer, and a physician, were found guilty of writing
against Laud's popish innovations, and the Sabbath
sports ; for which crime, they were condemned to
stand in the pillory, and have both ears cut off
Prynne had heretofore received this Laudian bene
diction ; and now, by especial order of the good
archbishop himself, the remaining stumps of his ears
were barbarously mangled, the temporal artery cut,
and blood drained off in streams.
When Laud was afterwards on his own trial, he
had the front to ask, what one instance of cruelty he
had ever committed ? Prynne immediately took off
his wig, and showed these " insignia Laudis," upon
his own bare, mutilated scull.
During twelve years of the maladministration of
this merciless, bigoted formalist, four thousand emi
grants escaped with life, from his murderous perse*
cution, to America; and twenty-seven clergymen,
ordained in the church of England, became pastors
of American congregations, prior to the year 1 640.
These persecutions drained England of half a mil
lion sterling, a sum, at least, equal in value to ten
millions of dollars at present; and also drove from
her an immeasurable aggregate of piety, talent,

128 EMIGRATIONS.
learning, industry, and efficiency. So serviceable is
a persecuting church establishment to the cause of
religion, and to the country upon which it is fastened
by the iron chain of secular power.
Multitudes more would have followed the earlier
pilgrims to these transatlantic shores ; but Laud for
bade them to emigrate, that he might gratify, though
he could not glut his archiepiscopal malignity, in
mangling and mutilating their bodies at home. Both
Charles and Laud, however, afterwards enjoyeif full
leisure to regret the having issued their writ of ne
exeant regno, to Oliver Cromwell, and some of his
sturdy companions, who wished to come to this
country. No human language is sufficient to describe the
imprudent insolence, the childish superstition, the
extreme violence, the personal animosity, the unre
lenting, blood thirsty persecution, that marked, and
characterized, and pervaded, and darkened the
whole course of Laud's ecclesiastical administration.
He executed the plans of the arbitrary Stuart, and
furthered the views of his own clerical ambition, with
singular cruelty, and unrivalled folly.
He did every thing insolently. If the law of the
land opposed his schemes, he spurned it with con
tempt, and violated it without hesitation. He heap
ed upon all whom he chose to designate as puritans,
every species of injury, and vexation, and suffering;
and laboured to exterminate them by imprisonment,
by torture, by murder.
He rejected publicly, so early as 1625, the first
year of Charles' reign, the Calvinistic doctrine of
predestination, as contained in the seventeenth arti
cle of the Anglican Church ; and notwithstanding
the opposition and remonstrance of archbishop Ab
bot, insisted upon substituting the Arminian system
in its place. He did not indeed, venture openly to
abrogate the thirty-nine articles, and cause the te
nets of Arminius to be incorporated into the creed
of the church of England ; but in 1625, he wrote a

Laud's prevarication. 129
small treatise to prove the orthodoxy of the Arme
nian doctrines ; and by his influence with the duke
of Buckingham, he got Arminian and anti-puritani
cal chaplains placed about the king.
These facts are worthy of notice, as contrasted
with his subsequent flat denial of having ever en-
coujja'ged Arminianism ; and should be, occasionally,
remembered by those churchmen, on both sides of
ttife:- Atlantic, who so much admire this father and
founder of protestant episcopal formalism, and hang
his picture up in their closets, as papists do the ima
ges of their patron saints.
On his trial, Laud utterly denied himself to be,
either an Arminian, or a promoter of Arminianism —
" I answer, in general," said this prevaricating pre
late, " that I never endeavoured to introduce Armi
nianism into our church, nor ever maintained any Ar
minian opinions. I did neither protect, nor counte
nance the Arminians, persons, books, or tenets.
True it is, I was, in a declaration of the commons
house, taxed as a favourer, advancer of Arminians
and their opinions, without any particular proof at
all ; which was a great slander to me."
Credat Judceus ! for no Christian will be readily in
duced to believe this assertion* although made under
the prospect of impending death; for he could not
reasonably expect to escape with life from the hands
of men, whom he had so long been in the habit of
persecuting ; so many of whose relations and friends
he had fined, imprisoned, tortured, killed ; and some
of whom, then present, bore in their oWn persons,
the indelible marks of his merciless mutilations*
Now for the proofs of tiie truth of his dying asse
verations, that he never was an Arminiah; that he
never maintained any Arminian opinions; that he
never countenanced Arminians ; that he never intro
duced Arminianism into the church of England.
In 1622, Laud induced James to publish "direc
tions? forbidding every, clergyman, under the degree
of bishop or dean. to. preach jn public, either for or"
17

130 charles's proclamation.
against those doctrines of grace specified therein.
But this prohibition, causing much indignation in the
public, James sent forth an apology for his conduct;
which served both to allay the popular displeasure,
and to blunt the edge of the directions themselves.
In 1626, about four months after his coronation,
Charles, instigated by Laud, revived these unpopu
lar directions, and extended the prohibition to bi
shops and deans.
There was fraud as well as force, throughout the
whole of this proceeding. But dolus, an virtus ? is
the motto of a full fledged formalist. And in justice,
we must confess, that the dolus generally outweighs
the virtus, in his ecclesiastical measures and con
duct ; formalism being as nearly allied to Jesuitism,
in its convenient morality, or, to use a softer term, ma
nagement ; as it is akin in its semipelagian doctrine.
The literal tenor of Charles's proclamation was
more favourable to the Calvinists, than to the Armi
nians ; but by the manner of Laud's interpretation
and execution thereof, it was made to exalt the Ar
minians, and crush the Calvinists. In this proclama
tion, it was expressly declared — " that his majesty
would admit of no innovations in the doctrine, disci
pline,, or government of the church, and therefore
charges all his subjects, and especially the clergy,
not to publish or maintain, in preaching or writing,
any new inventions or opinions, contrary to the said
doctrine and discipline, established by law."
It was, to speak in the mildest terms, a singular
instance of Laud's indecent partiality, to employ this
proclamation in suppressing the books written in de
fence of the thirty-nine articles ; while he caused the
writings of the Arminians, who expressly opposed
these articles, to be publicly licensed. This mode of
conduct, on the part of Laud, not only demonstrates
his own want of integrity, but also shows how difficult
it is to change systems established by law. For nei
ther Charles, who was by no means shy of usurping
authority ; nor Laud, who was far from being slow to

SEVENTEENTH ARTICLE. J 31
abuse it, attempted to reform or alter the articles of
church faith, directly opposed to the Arminian
scheme, which they were now promoting, and which
was fast gaining ground among the state clergy, un
der their courtly protection.
Instead of reforming, or rather of counter-reform
ing the thirty-nine articles, which would have been
strenuously opposed by the house of commons, and
a large proportion of the national clergy and laity,
who were still attached to Calvinism, as the accre
dited system of the English reformers ; the cunning
and malignant primate induced his royal puppet to
reprint the articles, with an ambiguous declaration
prefixed, tending to discourage the existing contro
versies between Calvinists and Arminians; ^and thus
secure to the Arminians an unmolested state, in
which their power and influence might daily grow,
under the countenance and patronage of the court.
This declaration, which, in many editions of the
English common prayer book, still stands at the head
of the articles, is a curious piece of political theology.
In its tenor, precision is studiously sacrificed to am
biguity; and even contradictions are preferred be
fore clear, consistent, positive decisions. The decla
ration seemed to favour the Calvinists, by prohibiting
the affixing any new sense to any article ; but in ef
fect favoured the Arminians, by ordering all curious
research about the contested points to be laid aside.
The most preposterous part of this declaration was,
its being designed to favour the Arminians, and yet
prohibiting any one, either in sermons or writings;, to
put his bwn sense or comment to be the meaning of
the article ; and ordering all to take each artiele in
its literal and grammatical sense, and submit to it in
the full and plain meaning thereof.
For the plain, literal, grammatical meaning of the
seventeenth article, has been universally conceded to
be unfavourable to the Arminian system : and bishop
Burnet, himself a stout Arminian, acknowledges, in
his " Exposition," that, without enlarging their sense,

132 RICHARD MONTAGUE.
Arminians cannot subscribe certain of the articles,
consistently with their own opinions.
One immediate design of this proclamation was, to
shelter Richard Montague, a clerical creature of
Laud, from the printed refutations of his book, which
were showering upon him from all quarters. He had
written in behalf of the Arminian tenets, and of ab
solute obedience to kings; Arminianism, in that age,
in England, closely connecting itself with civil, as
well as ecclesiastical despotism. And these two sys
tems of theology and tyranny, cemented by mutual
interests and similar views, formed, under the auspi
ces of Laud and Charles, that grand conspiracy
against the doctrines of the church* of England, and
against the constitutional liberties of the English peo
ple ; which soon eventuated in the overthrow of the
hierarchy, and the decapitation of the monarch.
The parliament, about a year before, in 1625, had
severely censured Montague's performance, entitled
" An appeal to Cesar;" " in which," said the commit
tee of the commons, " there are many things directly
contrary to the thirty-nine articles established by par
liament. He denies that Arminius was the first who
infected Leyden with errors and schisms. The sy
nod of Dort, so honoured by the late king, he calls
foreign and partial. He plainly intimates, that there
are puritan bishops ; which, we conceive, tends much
to the disturbance of the peace in church and state.
He respects Bellarmin, but slights Calvin, Beza,
Perkins, Whitaker and Reynolds. He much dis
countenances God's word; disgraces lectures, lec
turers, and preaching itself; nay, even reading the
Bible. Upon the whole, the frame of the book is to
encourage popery, in maintaining the papists to be
the true church, and that they differ not from us in
any fundamental point."
This description of Montague, by, the house of
commons, bears a striking resemblance to the opinions
and character of the modern fashionable formalists,

BISHOP DAVENANT. 133
Who swarm in such abundance, throughout the An
glican Church establishment. »
Heylin, in his life of Laud, admits, that Charles
and his confessor had recourse to this proclamation,
because they were afraid to trust the Arminian con
troversy to a convocation of the English clergy ; the
majority of whom, both bishops arid inferior clerks,
still adhered to the articles, in the sense in which the
first reformers had framed them. He says that bishop
Andrews did not incline to the new modelling the
church from Calvinism to Arminianism ; the Armini
an tenets not being so generally entertained among
the clergy ; nor the archbishop Abbot, and " the
greater part of the prelates so inclinable to them, as
to venture the determining of those points to a convo
cation. But that which was not thought fit, in that
conjecture, for a convocation, Ms majesty was pleased
to take order in, by his royal «edict. Many books
had been written against Montague, &c.
Some time after the issuing of this proclamation,
or royal edict, Dr. Dayenant, bishop of Salisbury,
preached before the king, at Whitehall. His text,
as he himself tells us, in his letter to Dr. Ward, on
this occasion, was Rom. vi. 23, — the gift of God is
eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here, I
expounded the threefold happiness of the Godly :
1st: happy in the Lord whom they serve; God, or
Christ Jesus ; — 2nd : happy in the reward of their
service, eternal life ; — 3rd : happy in the manner of
their reward ; %«pKf*«, or gratuitum donum in Christo,
the reward is God's free, unmerited gift in Christ.
The two former points were not excepted against.
In the third, I considered eternal life in three divers
instances: — 1st, in the eternal destination thereunto,
which we call election ; — 2nd, in our conversion, re
generation, or manifestative justification, which I
termed the embryo of eternal life , — 3rd, in our coro
nation, when full possession of eternal life is given us.
In all these, I shewed it to be jfcapurjiw, the free gift of

134 PREDESTINATION.
God, through Christ; and not procured, or pre-
merited by any special acts, depending upon the free
will of man. Tlie second point, wherein 1 showed,
that effectual vocation, or regeneration, whereby we
have eternal life inchoated, and begun in us, is a free
gift; was not expressly taxed. Only the first bred
offence ; not in regard to the doctrine itself, but be
cause the king had prohibited the debating thereof.
Presently after <my sermon was ended, it was signi
fied unto me by my lord of York, archbishop Harse-
net, my lord of Winchester, bishop Andrews, and
my lord chamberlain, that his majesty was much dis
pleased, that I had stirred this question, which he
had forbidden to be meddled with, one way or other.
My answer was, that I had delivered nothing but the
received doctrine of our church, established in the
seventeenth article ; and that I was ready to justify
the truth of what I had then taught.
Their answer was, that the doctrine was not gain-
sayed ; but his highness had given command that
these questions should not be debated; and there
fore he took it more offensively, that any one should
be so bold, as in his own hearing, to break his royal
commands. My reply was, that I never understood
his majesty had forbid the handling of any doctrine,
comprised in the articles of our church ; but only the
raising of new questions, or adding of new sense
thereunto, which 1 had not done, nor ever should do.
When coming to the Tuesday sermon, one of the
clerks qf the council told me, that I was to attend at
the council table, the next day at two of the clock.
When I came thither, my lord of York made a speech
of well nigh half an hour long, aggravating the bold
ness of my offence ; namely, the breach of the king's
declaration. Then I stood upon this defence, that
the doctrine of predestination, which I taught, was
not forbidden by the declaration ; first, because in
the declaration, all the thirty-nine articles are esta
blished, amongst which the article of predestination
is one. Second, because all ministers are urged te

Charles's Jesuitism. 135
subscribe unto the truth of this article ; and all sub
jects to continue in possession of it, as well as the
rest. Upon these, and such like grounds, I gathered it,
predestination could not be esteemed among forbid
den, curious or needless doctrines. And here I de
sired, that out of any clause in the declaration it might
be showed me, that, keeping myself within the bounds
of the article, I had transgressed his majesty's com
mand. But the declaration was not produced, nor
any particular words in it.
Fuller observes, that bishop Davenant, on his en
trance into the council chamber, presented himself
before the board on Ms knees ; a mortifying indignity,
inflicted on him, doubtless, by the instigation of the
malignant, vindictive Laud. , And on his knees he
might have remained, during1 the whole time of his
continuance before the privy council, for any favour
he found from those of Ms own function, his brother
prelates, there present. But the temporal lords hid
him arise, and stand to his own defence ; being, as
yet, only accused, not convicted.
] Soon after, the king sent for Davenant, and told
him, that he, Charles, would not have this high point,
predestination, meddled withal, or debated, the one
way or the other.
Mark, here, the hopeful proficiency of the royal
pupil in Laud's school of Jesuitism. Charles pro
fessed to prohibit the opposing, no less than the as
serting the doctrine of predestination. But his men
tal reservation helped him, in this as in other instances.
He meint only half what he said. Davenant was
summoned before the privy council, and reprimanded,
for asserting the doctrine of predestination, accord
ing to the seventeenth article ; while Montague was
encouraged, and promoted to the episcopate, for op
posing predestination; that is to say, for literally
transgressing the king's ostensible injunction.
In addition to all these iniquities, Laud introduced
into the Anglican Church numberless rites and cere-

136 GENERIC FORMALISM.
monies, marked with the basest stain of superstition ;
forced bishops upon the Scottish people, who were
zealously attached to the ecclesiastical polity and
discipline of Geneva, generally called presbyterian;
and had shown, on all occasions, a peculiar abhor
rence of episcopal government ; and above all, he
gave many strong intimations, that he deemed the
popish church more pure, more holy, and far prefer
able to those protestant churches, which decline sub
mission to the dominion of bishops.
Now this is the very essence of that modern fa
shionable theology, which may be designated by the
generic term, formalism, which, however it may as
sume various shades in different individuals, unites
them all by one common bond, namely, the substitu
tion of churchmanship for Christianity. And, if we
may judge from the publications of some of the most
distinguished formal champions of the English eccle
siastical establishment, they would rather embrace
an apostle fresh from pandemonium, with the mark
of churchmanship on his forehead, than the bright
est archangel, that ministers in heaven, without the
surmounting of such an exterior symbol.
Nay, but the Rev. Samuel Wix, a clergyman of the
church of England, and vicar of Bartholomew the
Less, in London, has recently uttered a work, in
which he gravely proposes a union between the Ro
man and Anglican Churches ; for the avowed purpose
of putting down all protestant dissenters, and of" de
stroying the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Divers attempts, at divers times, have been made
to whitewash Laud, and to transmute an established
episcopal tyrant and murderer, into a church saint ;
after the manner of the papal scheme. One of the
most zealous of his advocates is Dr. Heylin, who, in
his " Life of Laud," and in his " History of the Quin-
quarticular Controversy," labours, at once to magnify
the primate, and to induce his readers to believe, that
the articles of the English Church are to be now, and
always have been? construed in an Arminian sense.

JOANNA SOUTHCOTE. 137
Quite lately, Mr. Johnson Grant, in his "Summary
of the history of the English Church, and of the sects
which have separated from its communion," has trod
den in Heylin's foot-track, so far as relates to glori
fying Laud, and exhibiting the Arminianism of the
Anglican Church, as exemplified in her articles, ho
milies and liturgy.
Indeed, Mr. Grant is so zealous a churchman, and
so desperate a foe to all dissenters, that he actually
wages a long and loud war against Joanna Southcote,
an old woman in England, who, some time before she
died, gave out that she was going to lay an egg.
His defence of Laud amounts to a laboured eulogy
upon his "proud and haughty virtue ;" his " tower
ing spirit ;" his " eager and unrelenting zeal against
separatists ;" and so forth. Qualities these, doubt
less, very appropriate to a priest of Mars, a pagan
persecutor, or a popish inquisitor; although not ex
actly bearing the Scriptural marks of a Christian bi
shop. Mr. Grant, however, candidly ^confesses, in
the preface to the second volume, how'anxiously he
toiled to praise Laud ; his words are — " as a St.
John's man, I have certainly felt an esprit de corps,
in entering into an ample vindication of archbishop
Laud. It cost me more pains than many may con
ceive it to have merited ; yet there are minds, which
will deem it not the least interesting part of the
work." .
And after the example of bishop Tomline, Mr.
Grant vouchsafes, in the eleventh chapter, to quote
the infidel Hume, in justification of Laud's introduc
ing so many childish and superstitious ceremonies
into the church of England; because, says this great
judge of spiritual influences, "in a religious age,
they tend to mollify that fierce and gloomy spirit of
devotion, to which the rude multitude are subject.
Laud corrected the error of the first reformers, by
reviving (popish) ceremonies ; and presented to the
mind some sensible exterior observances, which re
called it from its abstractions. Thought relaxed it-
18

138 INFIDELITY  POPERY.
self in the contemplation of pictures, postures, vest
ments, buildings."
Mr. Grant, probably, when he called in Hume to
help him out in the defence of Laud, forgot how very
successful the popish chureh has always been in re
calling the mind from its abstractions by sensible
exterior observances ; and how completely she has
contrived to relax all thought of religion, in the con
templation of pictures, postures, vestments and build
ings. And, beyond a peradventure, he did not recollect
the observation of bishop Burnet, in his exposition
of the twenty-third article of the Anglican Church,
that " the morals of infidels show, that they hate all
religions equally; or, with this difference, that the
stricter any are, the more they must hate them ; the
root of their quarrel being at all religion and virtue."
Hume therefore, being an incorrigible infidel, very
naturally preferred Laud, for substituting popish
mummeries and pagan ceremonials, in the place of
fenuine religion, to the first reformers, who brought
ack the Anglican Church to the doctrinal purity of
the Apostolic age.
Mr. Southey seems, likewise, to entertain a some
what similar opinion to that of Mr. Hume and Mr.
Grant. For in the very able and learned chapter on
the state of religion in England, inserted in his Life
of Mr. Wesley, Mr. Southey, although, he acknow
ledges that the bulk of the English population was
essentially heathen, long after their nominal conver
sion to Christianity, yet is inclined to attribute much
more beneficial effects to the dominion of papery over
Christendom, than the facts recorded in history, will
justify. ''
A fairer ideal of Utopian policy, he says, can
Scarcely be contemplated, than the papal scheme ;
if it could be regarded apart from the abuses, the
frauds, and the crimes, to which it has given birth.
And a little farther onward, he declares, that the
church could not have effected all this good, if it

CEREMONIAL RELIGION. 139
had not employed means, which have been top indis
criminately condemned. A religion of rites and cere-
monieswas as necessary for the rude and ferocious
nations, which overthrew the Roman empire, as for
the Israelites, when they were brought out of Egypt.
Pomp, and wealth, and authority, were essential to its
success." What spiritual good was ever effected by the papal
scheme, no history has yet informed us. But cer
tainly, a religion of rites and ceremonies has never yet
been made an instrument in the hand of God, to
evangelize any nation, whether barbarous, or semi-
savage, or civilized. Our blessed Lord and Saviour
himself, while on earth, shrouding his Godhead in
the incarnation, used no such means ; but adopted
the plainest preaching of redeeming truth, in direct
opposition to a religion, full, even to the overflow
ing, of the most magnificent, and burdensome rites
and ceremonies.
His apostles and disciples, acting under the im
mediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, used no such
means ; but by the unadorned foolishness of Gospel
preaching encountered and vanquished barbarian
hordes, quite as rude and ferocious as were the
northern and eastern conquerors of imperial Rome.
Nor do the faithful followers of their Divine Master,
the successors and imitators of his Apostles, the
evangelical missionaries of the present daj\ use any
such means ; and they propound the everlasting Gos
pel to the darkest idolaters, the fiercest savages, the
bloodiest cannibals, in Africa, in Asia, and in Ame
rica, that ever disgraced the human form, or inflicted
suffering upon the human race.
The universal experience of the history of the
church of Christ, proves, that the only effectual way
to convert sinners from the service of sin, and sell',
and Satan, unto God, is to preach Jesus Christ, and
him crucified; whether to professed pagans, or to
nominal Christians ; whether to the children of civil
ization, or of entire barbarism, or of half culture;

140 CHARACTER OF LAUD.
leaving a religion of rites, and ceremonies, and pomp,
and wealth, and authority, to heathen priestcraft,
and persecuting popery, and established formalism.
Bishop Burnet, an Arminian, and who certainly
laboured, through a long life, to uphold the interests
of the Anglican Churclvldescribes Laud as a hot,
indiscreet man, eagerly pursuing matters, either very
inconsiderable or mischievous ; such as setting the
communion table by the east walls of churches, bow
ing to it, and calling it the altar ; the suppressing the
Walloon's privileges; the breaking of lectures; the
encouraging sports on the Lord's day ; and other
similar matters, on which all the zeal and heat of
the time was laid out.
His severity in the star chamber, and high com
mission court; his violent and inexcusable injustice,
in prosecuting bishop Williams ; were such visible
blemishes, that nothing but the putting him to death
in the manner his enemies did, could have raised his
character, and set him up as a pattern to all succeed
ing clergymen, who have adopted his notions, as tests
by which to try if men be stanch to the English
church establishment. His own diary represents
him as an abject fawner on the duke of Buckingham,
and a superstitious regarder of dreams.
His defence of himself, written with so much care,
in the Tower, is a very mean performance. In it, his
intention is to appeal to the world ; in most particu
lars he excuses himself, that he was only one of many,
who, either in council, star chamber, or high com
mission, voted illegal things. Now, allowing this to
be true, Laud, as chief minister and prime favourite
of Charles, moved the other members as so many
miserable machines.
On other occasions he says, the fact against him
was proved by only one witness. But how valid
soever this defence may be in law, such special plead
ing is inconclusive in an appeal to the world; for if his
guilt be real, in the eye of common morality, no mat
ter whether the proof be abundant or scanty. One

MODERN THEOLOGY. 141
of the most disgusting things in this book is, that after
he had seen the evil effects of his violent counsels,
and had been so long shut up, and so long at leisure
to reflect on what passed in the heat of passion, or
in the pride of prosperity, he does not, in any one
part of that great work, acknowledge his own errors,
nor mix in it any wise* or pious reflections on the
usage he experienced, or the unhappy steps he had
made ; so that, while his enemies magnified him by
their prosecution unto death; his friends, Heylin
and Wharton, have as much diminished him ; the one
by writing his life, and the other by publishing his
vindication of himself.
The Arminianism of Laud, and his followers, in
the Anglican Church, from the time of the first
Charles to the present hour, is, in fact, though not
openly avowed in words, but little better than the
doctrine introduced in the fifth century of the Chris
tian era, by Morgan, a Welshman, more commonly
known by the name of Pelagius. The foundation of
this scheme is, that death was not the consequence of
sin, but the effect of an original law of creation; that
the sin of Adam affected himself only, and, of course,
there is no original sin, nor human depravity ; that
the grace or favour of God is given according to hu
man deserts ; and that our free will, not Divine in
fluence, is the source of all human piety.
Now this system does not very materially differ
from the scheme of our modern formalists; as broach
ed by themselves, and told in their own way.
Dr. Gleig is a bishop of the episcopal church in
Scotland, and one of the ablest and most admired of
the contributors to the British Critic, and the Anti-
jacobin Review; two journals, avowedly instituted
and supported as orthodox champions of the Angli
can Church establishment ; and the sworn foes of all
nonepiscopalians ; but more particularly inveterate
against all evangelicals, whether in or out of the pale
of the state church. Bishop Gleig has inserted a dis-

142 BISHOP GLEIG.
sertation on original sin, in his edition of Stackhouse't
History of the Bible.
Able and learned, undoubtedly, is this disserta
tion ; as, indeed, are all the writings of the author of
the articles, metaphysics and theology, in the Ency
clopedia Britannica ; but ite orthodoxy, to say no
thing of its evangelism, many will be disposed to
doubt, when they find that it teaches, how Adam's"
disobedience to the Divine command only incurred
the penalty of bodily death ; that his posterity de
rive no moral taint or corruption from him; that
children are born into the world quite pure and in
nocent ; that all the iniquity of human kind proceeds
from the errors of education and association : in a
word, that there is no such thing as original or birth
sin ; the ninth article of the church, in which Dr.
Gleig is a bishop, and which article he must have
often subscribed, to the contrary notwithstanding.
Bishop Gleig, with an edifying simplicity, marvels
in a note, that his Scottish neighbours fancy they
smell a strong savour of Socinianism in these episco
pal effusions ; which are dedicated, " by permission,''
to Dr. Manners Sutton, the archbishop of Canterbury,
primate of England, and spiritual father of the An
glican Church establishment.
It is not within our present scope to enter into muclr
detail, respecting that important period of ecclesias
tical history, which shows by what means the merci
less Laud caused the general prevalence of form
alism in the church of England ; but let us pause a
moment over a few facts and observations, in regard
to that most fatal blow to the piety, peace and use
fulness of the Anglican ecclesiastical establishment.
The Christian Observer for 1820, in reviewing
Cromwell's Memoirs of Cfomwell, and dean Ken-
ney's ravings about radical reformers, says, that every
care was taken by misjudging politicians, particularly
by the ill starred and never to be forgotten archbishop
Laud, to inflame party spirit to its highest pitch, and

DOGMATISM. 143
to force upon the opposite party, by his conduct to
wards them, a feeling correspondent with his own ;
of haughty self-approbation, and entire contempt of
all differing sentiments and systems. He seemed
determined that those not of his party should differ
from him, till they did differ ; and resolved that they
should hate him, till they did hate him. He insisted
that they were, till he compelled them to become ene
mies of a persecuting state and church ; and to over
whelm him, and the secular government that upheld
his schemes, in one common ruin.
Under his auspices, and by his direction, intempe
rate zeal and overweening self confidence became
the law of religion ; and men saw, understood, ap
proved nothing but their own opinion. In what respect
does this conduct differ from that pursued by the ma
jority of the English state clergy, towards all who
profess evangelism, whether in or out of the national
church establishment, at this hour ? that is to say, so
far as the law of the land allows. The toleration act
of William protects dissenters from the fangs of es
tablished persecution ; but unbeneficed evangelical
churchmen have no refuge against the wrath of their
formal diocesans.
Strong dogmatism in religious opinion is frequently
akin to confusion and every evil work. Dogmatism
on free will and free grace, has been equally perni
cious ; if Cromwell and the puritans of England were
decided Calvinists, the turbulent and rebellious re
monstrants of Holland propounded an opposite dog
ma ; and the tyrannical Laud professed to be a high
toned, systematic Arminian; though, in fact, he was
a thoroughgoing formalist, and alike hostile to all
evangelical piety, whether found in the followers of
John Calvin, or of James Harmesen.
Christians, therefore, should1 cultivate a Christian
spirit more, and a wordy war about party opinions,
less ; and take their standard of conduct and feeling,
as well as their doctrine, from the Bible alone.

144 PARTY FEELING. O. — P.
All party feeling, whether connected with this or
that outward form of doctrine, or worship, or church
government, is ruinous to religion; and most nefa
rious are the attempts, now made by formal divines
of all the gradations of rank in the state church, to
prove the existence, and to promote the spirit of a
religious schism among the English established clergy,
adverse to the existing order of church and state.
No such schism exists, notwithstanding the unhal
lowed efforts of the formalists to provoke it, and to
produce and perpetuate a hostile division between
the evangelical clergy in the establishment, and
themselves; Among other causes, the British and Foreign Bible
Society has been the means of preventing or remov
ing a schism in the Anglican Church. Though even
now it is said, that, in imitation of Laud's infamous
precedent, certain lists of the national clergy are
handed about among the cabinet ministers and the
episcopal bench, marked O, for orthodox, or formal,
and P, for puritan, or evangelical ; that church pre
ferment might follow accordingly ; and the establish
ment be as thoroughly cleansed from all pure reli
gion and vital piety, as it was by Laud and the star
chamber, under Charles the first ; and by Sheldon
and the Bartholomew act, under Charles the second.
Infinite pains are taken by the established formal
ists, to persuade the evangelicals to become discon
tented with the existing order of things, by assuring
them that they are so ; and when they strongly deny
it, by still again insisting that they are, and must, and
shall be discontented. Loud charges of schismatical
guilt are continually growled forth from all the con
duit pipes of formalism ; and there is not a pious pas
tor of a flock, in any English parish, far or near,
large or small, public or retired, but the ungodly part
of his congregation has sufficient warrant from innu
merable publications, in the shape of books, jour
nals, and pamphlets, both priestly and prelatical.

CHURCH PREFERMENT. 145
every month, or week, or day, or hour, to revile him
as a methodist, Calvinist, puritan, fanatic, enthusiast,
hypocrite, and the like.
Nay, on such base party misrepresentations and ca
lumnies are the church preferments dispensed : and,
for the most part, effectual care is taken to exclude
-from the mitre, the stall, and the benefice, those who
^faithfully preach the evangelical doctrines of the
Bible; of the Reformation ; of the public formularies
of the Anglican Church.
Is this the mode by which the national church es
tablishment is to promote piety, and prevent heathen
ism, throughout England, Wales and Ireland ?
Such, however, are the legitimate fruits of that
formal, irreligious, persecuting spirit, which Laud
entailed upon the church of England. How fit that
execrable high priest was to administer metropolitan
jurisdiction, may appear from what his own friend,
Clarendon, who labours hard to extenuate his mal-
conduct, says of him.
When he, Laud — writes the noble historian— came
into great authority, it may be, he retained too keen
a memory of those who had unjustly and uncharitably
persecuted him before ; and, I doubt not, was so far
transported with the same passions he had reason to
complain of in his adversaries, that, as they accused
him of popery, because he had some doctrinal opi
nions they liked not; so he entertained too much pre
judice to some persons, as if they were enemies to
the discipline of the church, because they concur
red with Calvin in some doctrinal points ; when they
disliked his discipline, and reverenced the govern
ment of the church, and prayed for the peace of it,
with as much zeal and fervency as any in the king
dom; as they made manifest in their lives, and in
their sufferings with it, and for it.
The archbishop, with the primacy in his hand, and
the king at his elbow, inspired with the same zeal,
now made haste to apply remedies to those diseases,
which he saw would grow apace. Laud never abated
19

146
any thing of his severity and rigour towards men o f
all conditions ; or in the sharpness of his language and
expressions, which was so natural to him, that he
could not debate any thing without some commotion,
when the argument was not of moment ; nor bear
contradiction in debate, even in the council, where all
men are equally free, with the necessary patience^
and temper; of which they, who wished him not well,%
took advantage, and contradicted him into some
transport of indecent passion. Lord Cottington
would lead him into some political error, drive him
into choler, expose him to the company, in presence
of the king, and go and dine with him the next day.
It is evident that Clarendon, in his elaborate and
extended character of the archbishop, intends to lay
the whole blame of subsequent events upon the hot
headedness of Laud; and to hold him up as a last
ing example to mankind, in proof, that no pretence of
good intentions, and no sincerity of mistaken zeal,
could excuse a man for undertaking that, to which he
was wholly incompetent, and from the wrong conduct
of which, every one, except Laud and Charles, foresaw
the inevitable ruin of both church and state.
It was in reference to the deadly consequences of
the insane high churchmanship of this peevish, pas
sionate old man, that Clarendon uttered his memo
rable apothegm ; — " that of all persons who can read
and write, the (state) clergy are the most innocent of
any practical wisdom, or common sense."
Such was the adviser, to whom, exclusively, after the
death of Buckingham, and in Strafford's absence,
Charles abandoned himself. Laud took every ad
vantage of this misplaced confidence ; and, among
other expedients for guiding the movements of the
royal puppet, prepared a list of established clergy,
secretly marked with O, for orthodox, and P. for pu
ritan ; which he presented, first to the duke of Buck
ingham, and then to the king ; a measure directly
calculated to widen, irreparably, the breach then
beginning between loyal subjects in both lists. With

LAUD IN SCOTLAND. J 47
which join his silly additions to the ceremonial of the
church ; enforced, however, in their observance, with
all the bloody brutality of prelatical formalism.
But the consummation of his clerical and civil
policy was exhibited in his expedition to Scotland;
to impose, by force, an entire new church of England
, ritual on the Caledoniandescendants of Knox and
BalcanquhaL At the moment when a mine, laid by
his own folly and wickedness, was about to be sprung
under the feet of his royal master, does this weak,
insolent old man crawl to Edinburgh, to touch, with
childish hand, that fearful spring of popular feeling,
which instantly Wrapped all Scotland in a flame of
fire ; armed a powerful band against the territory of
England, and threw a great body of auxiliaries^ mili
tary, civil and clerical, into the ranks of the English
puritans ; which at once turned the doubtful scale,
and brought on the long poised ruin, in one hideous,
wild uproar, upon himself, his party, his church and
his king.
When the active energy of Strafford himself could
not withstand the mighty desolation ; is it surprising
that the poor, old, irritable, tremulous archbishop of
Canterbury, with his sharp answers, and closet learn
ing, and idle ceremonial, sank, like a baseless co
lumn, in the ruin occasioned by his own weakness
and tyranny ?
The puritans, galled to madness by the dissolution
of parliaments, and by Laud's incessant persecution,
at length opposed their effectual resistance. Their
main grievances, as stated by themselves, were,
Laud's encouraging, and preferring a formal and su
perstitious state clergy, and discouraging the sober
and virtuous ministers ; and imposing upon all, the
inventions of men, in the room of the institutions of
God. Some modern writers discover the presbyterian
and puritanical spirit of the parliament, in its treat
ment of the episcopal clergy. But what was the con
duct of that clergy, as led and instigated by Laud ?

148 ENGLISH STATE CLERGY.
There was a general outcry for civil liberty in the
English nation ; and Sibthorpe and Mainwaring
preached sermons, which were industriously spread
by the court, over the kingdom. In these sermons, pas
sive obedience was recommended in its full extent ; the
whole authority of the state was represented as be
longing to the king alone ; and all limitations of law
and a constitution, were rejected as seditious and
impious. So openly was this flagitious doctrine espoused by
the court, that archbishop Abbot, for refusing to li
cense Sibthorpe's sermon, was suspended from the
exercise of his office, banished from London, and
confined to a country seat. Abbot's principles of
liberty, and opposition to Buckingham, rendered him
ungracious at court, and procured the reproach of
being a puritan. The puritans made the privileges
of the nation a part of their religion ; and the high
church party were equally zealous for the absolute
prerogatives of the crown.
Mainwaring, for his sermon, was impeached and
punished by parliament ; but no sooner was the ses
sion ended, than this man, so justly obnoxious to the
legislature, and to every honest person in England,
received a pardon from the king, and a valuable liv
ing in the church establishment. Some years after,
he was made bishop of St. Asaph's. In such good
odour were formal, secular state clergy in the royal
nostrils of the first Charles.
At this period, also, there was a very general de
sire in the more serious part of the people of En
gland, for the better observance of the Lord's day.
In answer to which, out comes, under the sanction
and by the command of Charles and Laud, the Book
of Sports ; enjoined to be read in all parish churches.
Now, what was the burden of this book, issued by a
Christian king, and a protestant bishop ?
" Our pleasure likewise is, that the bishop of that
diocese take the like straight order with all the pu
ritans and precisians, within the same ; either con-

NEW-YORK SABBATH. 149
straining them to conform themselves, or to leave the
country, according to the laws of our kingdom, and
canons of our church ; and so to strike equally on
both hands, against the contemners of our authority,
and adversaries of our church. And as for our good
people's recreation, our pleasure likewise is, that
after the end of divine service, our good people be
not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful
recreation; such as dancing, either men or women;
archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such
harmless recreation ; nor from having less recreation ;
nor from having of May-games, whitsun-ales and
morris-dances, and the setting up of May-poles, and
other sports therewith used, &c."
This measure of the legal head of the establish
ment, doubtless, was as well calculated to recom
mend the religion of the Anglican Church, as the ser
mons of Sibthorpe and Mainwaring were to manifest
its love of liberty.
Has a copy of Laud's Book of Sports found its
way into the city of New-York ? In the month of
July, 1821, several of the most respectable and me
ritorious of the clergy, of various, denominations, pro
posed to the corporation to call a meeting in the
City Hall, in order to devise some means of bringing
about a better observance of the Sabbath, than the
present too prevailing mode of spending that sacred
day, in steam-boat excursions, in public gardens, in
taverns, in carriages, on horseback ', in a word, any
where, and any how, except attending divine wor
ship. The proposal was merely to procure the exe
cution of the laws already in being, for the decent ob
servance of the Lord's day.
Immediately, those profound theologians, the doers
of newspapers, Christian, Jew and Gentile, opened
in full cry against these clergy, for their unmannerly
interference with the Sabbatical recreations of a free
and an enlightened people. The epithets, " puritan,
persecuting, ambitious, hypocritical, intolerant," and
so forth, rang from side to side, against these unfor-

150 CHURCH OVERTHROW.
tunate divines. A large counter-meeting was got up,
consisting of the purest patriots in the community,
among whom were some hundreds of Hebrews, the
best of all possible judges how a Christian Sabbath
ought to be kept; and this goodly concourse of pious
people passed a resolution, that the interference of
clergy in such matters was highly improper. Huge
outcries were raised against church and state, cle
rical tyranny, and similar enormities ; and all design
of keeping the Lord's day any better in future, than
in time past, was completely quashed.
It is but justice to state, that the newspapers dis
tinctly declared,' that the New-York protestant epis
copal clergy, generally, had no part nor lot in this
attempt to procure a more devout observance of the
Sabbath. During Laud's wia/administration of church and
state, the stream of national feeling ran strongly
against popery ; and the sage and sagacious primate
delighted to brave and insult public opinion. So
suspicious was his conduct, that not only the puritans
believed the established church of England to be
relapsing fast into popish superstition ; but the court
of Rome itself expected it, and twice offered Laud a
cardinal's hat, which he faintly declined ; probably,
because the sdheme was not yet ripe. Succeeding
events frustrated the project of a reunion between the
Anglican and Roman churches ; a project, recently
revived by Mr. Samuel Wix, for the avowed purpose
of abating two great nuisances in the eyes of popery
and formalism. But an enormity, which William
Laud could not perpetrate in the seventeenth, is not
very likely to be achieved by Samuel Wix, in the
nineteenth century.
The consequence of Laud's idiotic and unprinci
pled conduct, was a universal execration of the En
glish church establishment ; as the nursery of super
stition and impiety ; the arsenal of clerical and civil
tyranny and persecution. And, accordingly, it was
swept away by the tide of indignant rebellion, when

MODERN FORMALISTS. 151
the people of England had been compelled to drain
to its very dregs, the cup of suffering and insult, pre
pared for, and administered to them, by the hands of
this execrable arch formalist.
Hume, Mosheim, Clarendon, Burnet— all who have
written with any intelligence and honesty, respecting
this period, however differing from each other in re
ligious and political opinions — unite in attributing the
temporary overthrow of the English monarchy and
ecclesiastical establishment, to the arbitrary cruelty,
and senseless superstition, and exclusive churchman
ship of Laud.
The legitimate successors of Lfpd, the secular,
formal state clergy of the present day, incessantly
revile all evangelical preachers, as unsound members
of the Anglican Church; and, at the best, as persons
of questionable loyalty to the British government.
The wilful, deliberate falsehood of these charges,' is
not the greatest evil. Their direct tendency is to
degrade and destroy the established church.
When other religious denominations observe the
unsparing calumnies, with which so many of the most
active, able, useful and learned of the national clergy
are, merely because they preach the Gospel faith
fully, and .live a holy life, pursued and persecuted by
a party calling itself orthodox; when they find bi
shops, and deans, and archdeacons, and rectors, and
vicars, and even unfledged curates, joining in the
vulgar cant and cry; must they not conclude, that
the church establishment loves party strife better
than its Bible and its public formularies; and that it
is hastening to share the fate of a house divided
against itself ?
Infidelity, too, which is always closely coupled
with, and invariably aided by, formalism, is peculiarly
alert and stirring in England now ; and cannot fail
to thrive mightily by the present efforts of the formal
state clergy, to break down the only barrier against
irreligion and profligacy, in the Anglican Church.
by rooting all evangelism out of it. The Christian

152 COMPULSORY, UNIFORMITY.
Observer asks, with emphasis, if this is a time to cast
suspicion upon those, who serve in the same church,
and minister at the same altar ; to tear asunder the
bands which unite us with any class of Christians, in
the interests of the Christian faith ; to follow the ex
ample of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, when the
avenging army was at their gates ; to fight about a
few mysterious points, which, till the consummation
of all things, never can be settled, while the enemy is
going round our bulwarks, and counting our towers,
and undermining the very foundations of the Chris
tian temple ?
If it were possible for formalism to learn the neces
sity of forbearance, of toleration, of charity, she might
derive the salutary lesson from the history of the first
Charles ; which shows, in glaring colours, the impo
licy, as well as the injustice of classing whole bodies
of men, wantonly and indiscriminately, under an op
probrious name; and of treating as enemies to the state,
all who do not exactly coincide with the powers that
be, about church government.
By uniting the political and religious puritans, who
had, otherwise, no necessary connexion, and by af
fecting to treat them all as of the same faction, Laud
forced the people of England into a resistless rebel
lion. In spite of alfthe efforts of modern formalists
in the English church establishment, there will still be
Calvinistic dissenters, who may be provoked by«ca-
lumny, but cannot be bullied into conformity. When
Laud began to persecute the puritans, he hoped, as
James the first had hoped before him, either to make
them conform, or " to harry them out of the country."
He used most cruelly oppressive courts, and exten
sive powers to compel conformity, and failed. The
bloody Mary, who, perhaps, had more power, but,
eertainly, not more cruelty than Laud, was unable to
produce uniformity of doctrine, worship, or disci
pline. Indeed, the fulness of universal formalism cannot
be produced, in England, or in any other country,

SiN OF SCHISM. 153
except by a system of general and pitiless extermi
nation ; a system, which could not be carried into
complete effect, even under the Tudors and Stuarts,
by Bonner and by Laud ; and, which, in the present
condition of Christendom, is not very likely to be in
trusted to the orthodox hands, either of the bishop of
Winchester, or of the Peterborough diocesan, or of
the dean of Achonry.
The formal party spirit, which is now fast ruining
the English church establishment, has been rife in
that body, ever since its first introduction by Laud.
Bishop Burnet incessantly complains of its existence,
and ruinous tendency, during the reigSs of the second
Charles and James, and William, and Ann. It pro
duced the Bartholomew, the Conventicle, and the
Five Mile acts, in England, and the horrible perse
cutions in Scotland ; it defeated the plan of king
William for gaining the dissenters by conciliatory
measures; it pursued Tillotson with revilings to his
grave, because he would not lend his aid to intole
rance and persecution ; and it now labours to cast
out of the establishment altogether, the compara
tively small portion of evangelical clergy, who, alone
by their existence and exertion, preserve that esta
blishment from impending perdition.
A constant cry, now sent forth by the formalists in
the English church establishment, is uttered against
" the*sin of schism," by Which they mean a departure
from, or a refusal to join their own particular mode
of ecclesiastical discipline and worship.
Schism is a word in high repute among established
churches, and applied liberally to all who stray be
yond their legal pale. For example, the Anglican
Church calls all dissenters from her ecclesiastical
scheme, schismatics ; and the kirk of Scotland com
pliments with the same title, all seceders from her
communion. But schism is a rending of the body of
Christ; that is, the church of Christ, which is com
posed of all true believers, wherever situated, and
whenever living. This Christian church, this church
20

154 PRESBYTERIAN PERSECUTION.
universal, is not confined to any particular, outward,
visible sect, or denomination, whether established by
law, as a state church, or otherwise ; whether epis
copalian, or presbyterian, or congregational ; but in
cludes all, of every various persuasion, who worship
the Lord Jesus Christ in singleness of heart, in sim
plicity and in truth. The bond of catholic union be
tween Christian churches is a common faith, not a
common church government.
/ Schism, therefore, means a departure from sound
evangelical doctrine, and not from any particular
form of church government or discipline. Hence,
all Arians, Sooftiians, formalists ; all who mutilate,
or corrupt, or deny, or keep out of sight, the pure
doctrines of the ever blessed Gospel, are schismatics ;
whether they be churchmen, or presbyterians, or in
dependents, or methodists, or baptists, or any other
sect or portion of the visible Christian church.
At length, Laud, for his intolerance, cruelty, op
pression and insolence, was brought to the block,
and state episcopacy abolished. The Westminster
assembly of divines framed a directory for worship,
which superseded the common prayer book ; and the
presbyterians exercised their ecclesiastical domi
nion, during the little hour of their political ascend
ancy, with the same intolerance and injustice, which
had been displayed towards themselves by their
episcopalian persecutors.
Another pregnant proof this, of the folly and wick
edness of giving to any church, to any religious com
munity, secular and military power, wherewith to in
jure and harass those who, differ from it in opinion.
My kingdom is not of this world, says the Saviour ;
and 'his genuine disciples do not covet a worldly
sceptre. The permitting a state, clergy to punish,
with the secular sword, whatever they deem to be
religious error, has always been ruinous to the cause
of real Christianity ; whether in Britain, or in Geneva,
or at Rome, or elsewhere.

STATE CHURCHES CRUEL. 15.5
Doubtless, if the toleration act were to be repealed
in England, and the people of that country would
submit to it, the established church would now re-
enact the bloody tragedies against dissidents without,
arid evangelicals within its pale, that were performed
upon the puritans and nonconformists, by the pre
ceding state clergy, under the auspices of Elizabeth
and tlie first four Stuarts. Nor is it less certain, that
if any one religious sect, in these United States* whe
ther episcopal, or presbyterian, or congregational,
were to be interlocked with the civil government,
and permitted to wield its sword ; this country would
again exhibit the same systematic intolerance, which
induced the puritans of New-England to burn qua-
kers for nonconformity, and old women for being too
intimate with the devil.
Persecution seems to be a necessary adjunct of
an established church ; and, at this moment, formal
English bishops persecute, to the utmost extent of
their power, the unbeneficed evangelicals within
their dioceses. They are not, indeed* as the law now
stands, allowed to burn, or imprison, or fine, or tor
ture the victims of their episcopal vengeance; but
they labour to starve them, by driving them out of
their jurisdiction, by prohibiting their performance
of any official duty, by depriving them of the means
of subsistence ; if they dare to preach the pure Gos
pel, and prove themselves faithful to their ordination
voWs. Real Christians are always fearfully outnumbered,
in every human society, by the formal, the secular,
the profane, and the profligate ; and should, there
fore, keep themselves pure from all contact with a
mere worldly religion, and exert their genial influ
ence over the surrounding region that lieth in wick
edness; by the gradual effect of the Gospel on indi
vidual converts; and by the higher standard of pub
lic morals, which their sentiments and example can
not fail, eventually, to erect.

]56 BUTTON BREACH.
Dr. Gauden, in his petitionary remonstrance to
the protector, estimates the number of episcopal
clergy, sequestered by the presbyterians, at between
six and seven thousand ; nearly two-thirds of all the
state incumbents. Nor were these governing eccle
siastics always very scrupulous as to whom, or why,
they ejected the clerical possessors of church livings.
Indeed, dominant ecclesiastical sects have never
been very remarkable, in any age, or in any country,
for their moderation in the use, nor for their forbear
ance from the abuse of secular power.
The presbyterians, at this period, ejected the rec
tor of FittlewoMh, in Sussex, from his church living,
for what they called " a breach of the Sabbath ;"
which breach, upon examination, turned out to be,
that, as he was going to church, in stepping over a
stile, a very essential button in his breeches gave
way ; and he had recourse to a neighbouring tailor
to sew it on for him, rather than face his congrega
tion with his nether garment in an unseemly posture.
Thus, under the tender mercies of a presbyterian
stale church, a simple button breach cost an honest
man his bread.
Doubtless, a large proportion of the sequestered
episcopal clergy were not very eminent divines, ei
ther in theory or in practice ; seeing that an esta
blished church has always, in itself, a direct tend
ency to secularize the state religion ; a tendency,
which, certainly, would not be weakened, under the
protecting nightshade of such nursing fathers and
nursing mothers, as Elizabeth, James and Charles.
But the presbyterians also sacrificed some of the
firstlings of the episcopal flock. Dr. Calamy, him
self, says, " I readily acknowledge many of the suf
ferers to have been men of great worth and eminence.
I am sincerely sorry they met with such usage ; and
can, as heartily as any man, lament the rigorous treat
ment of such excellent persons as bishop Moreton,
bishop Hall, bishop Prideaux, bishop Brownrigg, &c.

EJECTED ALLOWANCE. 157
I have not the least word to say in vindication of it.
Bishop Hall's Hard Measure, written by himself,
added to the account of the specialties of his life.
and dated May 29, 1647, would make any man's
heart bleed, that reads it."
In John Walker's " Attempt towards recovering an
account of the numbers and sufferings of the clergy
of the church of England," will be found many facts,
that prove the hardness of presbyterian dominion,
while it remained the prevailing state sect. It is not
intended to justify the vindictive bitterness, the viru
lence, the illiberality, the calumny, in which Mr. John
Walker indulges himself; for the man seems to have
been a full fledged formalist ; but, merely, to refer
to the unquestionable facts collected by him, show
ing, that clerical oppression was not confined to
Laud and the hierarchy; but prevailed, also, among
the presbyterians of the commonwealth, as soon as
they obtained the power of the secular sword, to
manifest, effectually, their deadly hostility to all re
ligious toleration.
The parliament professed to allow one-fifth of the
income of the benefices to the wives and families of
the sequestered clergy; but if the account given by
bishop Hall, in his Hard Measure, be correct* as ap
plicable to his brethren in distress, as well as to him
self; a very small proportion of this fifth ever reached
the hands of the sufferers. Little as it was, however,
it, by so much as its whole amount, exceeded the
munificence of Charles and his bishops, to the non
conformists, whom they ejected ; for to these men
they allowed, absolutely, nothing but famine, and the
dungeon, and incessant persecution.
Whether Cromwell possessed any personal pietv or
not, he, undoubtedly, did infinitely more for the "pro
testant religion, than all the four Stuarts put together,
notwithstanding they were the legitimate heads, and
supreme pontiffs of the established church of En
gland. For he not only prohibited, to the utmost of
his power, all persecution on account of religious

158 PROTESTANT COUNCIL.
opinions at home, within the English realm, during
his protectorate ; but extended his influence in fa
vour of protestants, on the European continent.
For example, when the duke of Savoy raised a
new persecution against the Vaudois, Cromwell sent
to cardinal Mazarin, then premier of France, to put
a stop to it ; adding, that he well knew the French
government had the Italian duke in their power, and
could restrain him, if they pleased; and if they did
not, they must prepare for a rupture with England.
Mazarin objected to this, as an unreasonable requi
sition : he promised to interpose his good offices, but
could not be obliged to answer for their result.
Cromwell persisted, and Mazarin ordered the duke
of Savoy to desist from his bloody persecution; which
being done, the English protector raised a large sum
of money for the Vaudois, and sent over Morland to
settle all their concerns, and to supply all their losses.
About the same time, there was a tumult at Nismes,
in which the Huguenots were disorderly ; and ap
prehending some severity from their government,
they sent a person over to Cromwell, who sent him
back to Paris, within an hour, with a letter to his
ambassador, directing him, either to get the matter
passed over, or to leave France immediately. Ma
zarin complained of this proceeding, as too impe
rious ; but yielded. These things raised Cromwell's
character all over Europe ; as well they might.
Cromwell, also, designed to establish a council for
the protestant religion ; in opposition to the society
de propaganda fide, at Rome. It was to consist of ser
ven counsellors, and four secretaries, for different
provinces: — the first, to include France, Switzer
land, and the Valleys ; the second, the palatinate,
and the other Calvinists; the third, Germany, the
north, and Turkey ; the fourth, the East and West
Indies. The secretaries were to keep up a corres
pondence every where, in order to ascertain the
state of religion all over the world ; so that protest
antism might be protected and assisted. Chelsea

STUART CRUELTY. 159
college was to be fitted up for them ; and the funds
necessary for the execution of this great object, to
be regularly supplied. Death prevented the ac
complishment of this noble project ; and Charles the
second was not the man exactly calculated to perfect
the unfinished schemes of Cromwell.
What a magnificent contrast does the English pro
tector's public conduct, in regard to religion, present
to the behaviour of the Stuarts ; who not only aban
doned the protestants of continental Europe to the
envenomed fury of their popish persecutors, but also
heaped every species of indignity and torture upon
their own protestant people, at home.
One fact of James the second ought never to be
forgotten ; as it shows, not only the horrible barba
rity of his nature, but also, what the tender mercies
of popery are, whenever it has power to use its own
favourite arguments against all that will not subscribe
to the bloodiest system of fraud, that was ever im
posed upon suffering and degraded humanity.
During the persecutions, inflicted by Charles the
second, and the English state church, upon the Scot
tish people, to dragoon them into episcopacy, who
ever was to be struck in the boots, was tortured in
the presence of the council; upon the occurrence of
which, almost all the members endeavoured to es
cape. The sight was so dreadful, and the agony of
the smashed and mangled sufferer so horrible, that
without a royal order from the head of the established
church, restraining a given number' to stay, the board
would have been forsaken. But James, then duke of
York, during his stay in Scotland, manifested a truly
infernal delight at this shocking spectacle, and look
ed on during the whole process of mangling the mi
serable victim, with an eager attention, as if he had
been witnessing some curious experiment upon ina
nimate and insensible matter.
Yet not all the atrocities of the Stuarts, father, son
and grandsons ; nor the fury of that red-handed

160 JAMES SHARP.
butcher, Lauderdale, could keep even pace with the
insatiable blood-thirst of James Sharp, the established
archbishop of St. Andrews ; an execrable wretch,
who had been a presbyterian clergyman; .who had
been intrusted by the presbyterians with their most
important interests ; who had basely betrayed all his
trust ; who, for this very consummation of perfidy,
was raised to the archiepiscopate, by that sanctimo
nious head of the English protestant episcopal
church, Charles the second; who proved himself to
be a truly primitive state bishop, by a long series of
fraud, falsehood, perjury, persecution, and murder ;
and who, at length, fell under the knives of the cove
nanters, whom he had, for many years, hunted, tor
tured, plundered, massacred, without mercy, and
without remorse, for the sole crime of worshipping
the Lord their God, according to the dictates of their
own conscience.
Cromwell experienced some trouble, in settling,
as the cant political phrase runs, the religion of En
gland. For when the fury and perfidy of Laud had
put both the monarchy and the state church of En
gland in abeyance, many wild and strange notions
about religion, both individual and national, were
spread abroad. The presbyterians were afraid of
the commonwealth men, or republicans; many of
whom set up for deists, and were urgent for the de
struction of all sorts of clergy, and for breaking up
every Vestige of a church establishment. They ad
vised the pulling down all churches, discharging all
tithes, and leaving religion to shift for itself, without
either encouragement or restraint, on the part of the
civil government ; the latter part of which experi
ment is now in progress, throughout these United
States. Cromwell assured the presbyterians, that he would
maintain a public ministry ; and he joined them in a
commission with some of the independents, to be the
triers of all applicants for benefices. These triers

GOODWIN  CROM,WELL. 161
alsp^disfisjid of all the churches in the gift of the
crown, or of the bishops, and likewise of the cathe
drals.,, .„:,,,.
.Cfprnwell laboured to divide the republican party
among themselves ; to set the fifth monarchy men and
enthusiasts against those who disregarded religion,
and professed to act only on the principles of civil
liberty; as Algernon Sidney, Henry Nevil, Martin,
tWildman and Harrington. The fifth monarchy men
professed to live in daily expectation of Christ's ap-
ipearancein London. John Goodwin headed these
fanatics, and was. the first who introduced Arminian
ism among the puritans. The protector called him
self a Calvinist; as were the independents generally.
„Yet none of the preachers were so stanch to him in
{temporal matters, as Goodwin ; who, not only justi
fied the decapitation of Charles, but magnified it as
the most glorious of all human transactions. He
turned the brains of his followers, if not his own,
with the expectations of an immediate millenium, or
the glorious reign of Christ on earth for a thousand
years. Some of these saints, however, afterwards, as
Dr. South observes, took Tyburn, in their way to
jheaven.
• On the whole, ^Cromwell was himself tolerant to
wards all religious persuasions: the fifth monarchy
men he treated in their own Way, with mystical dis
courses, and long, unintelligible prayers.; the other
republicans he considered as . heathens; and the
lipiseopalians he suffered to hold their meetings in
several places about London, free from all molesta
tion. , Bishop Burnet says, that when his own designs did
not lead him out of the way, Cromwell was a lover
of justice and virtue, and even of learning, though
jpueh decried at that time. He studied to seek out
able and honest men for his, employment. His gen
tleness-had much quieted the people in relation to
him ; and his maintaining the^hjjtour of England, in
all foreign nations, highly gratified them. Though

162 BOREL — CHARLES.
not a crowned head, his ambassadors had all the re-
spect paid to them, which any English king's, en
voys received,; „ and. much . greater than was ever
shown to those of the second Charles and James ;
more especially at the French court. .t
The Dutch were in such dread of the protector,
that when Charles, or his brother, came to see their
sister, the princess royal, they used to send a depu^
tation, saying that Cromwell had required of the
states to give them no harbour. Charles, when seek
ing a pretence for war, in 1 672, against Holland, as
signed as a reason, that some of his rebels were suf
fered to live there. Borel, the Dutch ambassador,
answered, that it was an ancient maxim with them,
not to inquire why strangers lived in Holland ; but
to receive them all, unless they had conspired against
the persons of princes. Charles then reminded him,
how the states had used himself and his brother.
Ha, sire \— replied Borel — c' estoit une autre chose.
Cromwell estoit un grand homme, et il se fasoit crain-
dre, et par terre, et par mer.
Charles answered — je me feray craindre aussy a
mon tour. But Charles did not keep his word; for,
like his father, and his grandfather, he was formida
ble only to the British people, wljom he deceived,
oppressed and persecuted. He was the contempt
and scorn of all foreign nations.
It was a prevailing fashion among Charles the se
cond's state clergy, to brand the puritans as authors
of his father's death. But Calamy, Marshal, Whita-
ker, Sedgwick and Ash, eminent presbyterian minis
ters, when consulted, declared that the,, army disap
proved of killing the king. Forty-seven other mi
nisters protested against it; for which they were
threatened by the army leaders. Sixty ministers in
Essex, and fifty-four in Lancashire, most rigid puri
tans, also protested against the. execution of Charles.
Nay, Cromwell complained, that, he and his council
of officers were thwarted in, their designs upon the
king, by the opposition of the presbyterian parsons.

WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 1 63
Nor were the independent clergy more favourable
to this measure ; upon which they preserved an omi
nous silence, when preaching before the parliament,
at a time, when to applaud the king's execution, was
the high road to ecclesiastical preferment.
'"The truth seems to be, that Cromwell, and the
other military leaders of the parliament party, knew
that they could never trust Charles; and in self-de
fence, put him to death, rather than replace him in a
situation, which would enable him to confer the same
kindness upon them.
The parliament having put down state episcopacy,
the Westminster assembly of divines laboured to con
form England to Scottish presbyterianism ; unmind
ful, it should seem, of their own complaints against
the episcopal church, for having cemented their uni
formity with the tears and blood of the dissenting
puritans. This assembly consisted of one hundred
and forty-three presbyterian, and seven independent
ministers; men, generally, of great talent, -and pro
found theqlogical learning; as their written labours,
particularly their Confession of Faith, and Cate
chisms, fully prove.
Laud, and his formalist followers, with their wonted
good faith, have always reviled this assembly as a
rabble of ignorant Brownists. Able and learned as
they were, however, they had not sufficiently drank
into their Divine Master's spirit, to abstain from en
croaching on the rights of conscience, and labouring
to compel people to believe in presbyterianism, as the
established, or state religion. But the parliament
passed a law, abolishing all penalstatutes relating to
religion; and allowing all to worship according tb
their owri will, on swearing allegiance to the govern
ment. This Christian toleration was constantly denounc
ed by the presbyterians, as a crying sin ; and the
various sects bitterly vituperated, as so many deadly
wounds to "the church." *So absurd and dangerous
is it to intrust "any religious body with power to per-

164 COMMONWEALTH RELIGION.
secute ; and so propense are all established, or state
clergy, to harass their fellow-men, for the good of the
church ; meaning thereby their own peculiar sect.
A large portion, some thousands, of the episcopal
clergy conformed to the new order of things ; for a
national church never lacks an abundance of vicars
of Bray. These clerical conformists were not al
lowed to read the liturgy ; and the use of the old
form of prayer was prohibited in private families.
Such notions of religious liberty prevailed among
those very men, who had suffered, and had but just
escaped from under the harrow of Laud and his mer
ciless inquisition.
The state of real religion, of vital piety, in England,
during the interregnum, it is not easy to ascertain.
The formal churchmen delight to represent it as the.
era of » ignorance, fanaticism and hypocrisy; the pu
ritans extol it as an age of universal piety. Neither
of these descriptions is strictly correct. No doubt
the Sabbath was highly honoured ; and the public
discourses delivered at that time, both by presbyte
rian and independent clergy, are equal to any which
have been produced in England, since the Reforma
tion ; in point of sound learning, theological research,
Scriptural knowledge, practical usefulness, and po
pular eloquence.
Nevertheless, Mr. Neale indulges in a little poetry
when he says, that " the great body of the people
were sincerely religious." For how does it appear,
that the millions of ignorant, heathenish, profligate
formalists, whom Laud so tenderly cherished, while
he incessantly persecuted all vital religion, were ever
converted to Christianity ? And if they were, whence
arose the millions of the same order of men, who, on
the restoration of Charles, deluged England with im
piety and .crime ? Neither Britain, nor any other
nation, can be transformed into a Christian commu
nity? by a mere change of temporal rulers, or of
church government ; or, according to act of parlia
ment.

NATIONAL RELIGION. 165
Doubtless, as lord Clarendon observes, hypocrisy
and fanaticism contributed*' at that time, largely, to
form; the English character. It was the fashion of
the commonwealth rulers, to make the people reli
gious ; as it was of Charles and Laud, to make them
high church formalists ; and of the second Charles
and his courtiers, to make them openly profane and
licentious. In consequence, there was a general ap
pearance of godliness throughout the nation. Open
irreligion was checked, and compelled to take shel
ter under the cloak of that serious profession, which
led to preferment. But this very fact proves, that
there was a vast aggregate of real piety in England,
at that period ; for the extent of hypocrisy must al
ways be regulated, in every community, by that of
true religion.
If religion had not been spread generally over the
English nation, there could have been no effectual
demand for extensive hypocrisy ; which, in itself, is
never any thing more than the homage of vice to vir
tue. If the great body of the English people had not
then highly valued religion, it could not have been
worth the while of their leading statesmen to play the
hypocrite; and affect the semblanceof piety, in or
der to render themselves acceptable to the nation at
large. If the statesmen of the present day, in Europe,
and in America, do not find it necessary to conceal
their entire disregard for all vital Christianity; but
can afford to avow, either their formal indifference,
or their speculative and practical infidelity; it only
proves that there is too little real religion in their re
spective communities, to compel them to wear the
mask of hypocrisy, and assume the appearance of
that piety which is so generally diffused. It only
proves, that the hosts of formalists and infidels, now,
are more numerous, and more daring in Christendom,
than they were in some former ages.
The truth is, there was, at that time, a great por
tion of religious knowledge diffused among all ranks
of the English people. The long parliament itself

166 cromwell's chaplains.
was an assembly of theologians ; and the preachers
laboured zealously in their vocation ; though being
narrowed in their views by sectarian bigotry, they
were bitter enemies to all Christian toleration. Yet
the author of the " Conformist's plea for the noncon
formists," says, " in many hundreds of sermons I ne
ver heard their differences of sentiment ; though one
was considered a presbyterian, another an independ
ent, arid a third an episcopalian ; nor was Calvin dei
fied, or preached, any further than as Christ spake
in him."
It would, indeed, be bitter mockery, to compare
the state of real religion in England, under the pro
tectorate of Cromwell, and during the perfidious,'
profligate reign of the second Charles. Whatever
might be the amount of the protector's personal piety,
it could not, possibly, be less than that of the king,
who succeeded him. His chaplains, Owen and
Howe, were, at least, equal in piety, talent, learning
and integrity, to any who have ever ministered in the
same capacity to the Tudors, the Stuarts, or the
Brunswicks. On the accession of Charles, the constrained de
cency of the commonwealth was exchanged for the
most openly avowed profligacy. But who were the
hypocrites ? the puritans, who suffered every species
of persecution, rather than renounce their faith, and
let go their integrity ? or those high church formal
ists, who, during the protectorate, wore the garb of
solemn conformity • and, under the auspices of
Charles, exhibited the most barefaced irreligion and
immorality ? Of such efficacy is the scheme of, re
ducing a whole nation to the uniform paces of a po
litical state church.
The actual state of religion in a country, is of much
greater importance, than mere politicians, however
profoundly and comprehensively versed in econo
mics, can be taught to appreciate.1 The historical
books of Scripture emphatically teach this moment
ous lesson, that God is goverhor among the nations;

BASENESS OF CHARLES. 167
that . righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is the
reproach of any people; that the periods of national
history are prosperous or calamitous, in proportion
as piety prevails or languishes.
A stronger confirmation of this awful truth cannqt
be found, than in the periods now under considera
tion. How terrible to all her foes abroad, as well as
secure at, home, was England, during the protector
ate, of Cromwell, when a great portion of her people
were seriously inclined, and religion was encourag
ed*; and how soon thereafter was she filled with in
ternal disorder, and bowed her head to the dust,
when Charles hunted every thing in the shape of pi
ety, into the dungeon, or info exile, or into the sepul
chre ; and spread the full tide of irreligion, and its
inseparable accompaniments, iniquity and profligacy,
over every corner of the land. Then, the people
were quickly dispirited and despised, and the king
himself became a hireling pensioner of the French.
court. For a full exposition of the base serviency of the
second Charles and James to the cabinet of France,
see the works of Louis the fourteenth ; Mr. Fox's
History of the early part of the reign of James the
second ; and Mr. Rose's Observations on Mr. Fox's
book. In these publications may be seen the secret
treaties between tlie French and English courts ;
and the melancholy contrast between the high na
tional character of England, while, under Cromwell,
she kept all Europe in awe; and her degraded, ab
ject condition, when, under Charles and James, she
was a vassal province of France.
Bishop Burnet imputes the mischiefs of Charles's
reign, to his being restored without conditions. And
when the earl of Southampton began to see what a
curse this head of the established church was likely
toprove; in great wrath, he accused lord Clarendon
as the cause of all they felt, or fearedj, for if he,
Hyde, had not misrepresented his "master, so much in
all his letters, they would have taken care to put it

1 68 CLARENDON — SOUTHAMPTON.
out of his power to do so much mischief. Hyde an
swered, that he thought Charles had so much good
nature and judgment, that when the age of pleasure,
and the idleness of exile was over, he would get rid
of all entanglements, and attend to business.
Clarendon lived long enough to experience, in his
own person, what kind of nature and: judgment
Charles was capable of exhibiting ; in return for a
long life of the most important political services ren
dered to himself and to his father, in their greatest
hour of need. ..$'¦<¦
At the restoration, Arminianism was declared to
be the court religion ; and was, accordingly, adopted
by the great body of the episcopal clergy, now re-es
tablished as the state church. Charles understood
the business of kingcraft so far, as to be aware, that
he could never bow the stubborn sinews of a Calvin
istic ministry to the bloody idolatries of papal Rome.
Before Charles left Paris, he embraced the Romish
superstition ; cardinal de Retz was in the secret ;
and lord Aubigni promoted it; though Clarendon
could not, for a long time, be induced to believe his
royal master quite so base. It was, however, known
in France ; for De Retz urged his kinsman, and par
ticular friend, the marquis De Roucy, one of the first
French families that continued protestant to the last,
to embrace popery ; urging, as the chief reason, that
protestantism was on the point of ruin ; that the Hu
guenots could expect no aid from England ; for both
Charles and James Stuart were already become pa
pists. As a natural consequence of his secret popery;
and avowed support of the English protestant epis
copal church, in the capacity and character of its
supreme, secular, established head, Charles perse
cuted, with the fangs of a fiend, every appearance of
evangelical religion ; and exhibited a most edifying
spectacle to his state clergy, in regularly issuing
from the chambers of his kept mistresses, to the na
tional church, even on sacrament days; and in

BARTHOLOMEW ACT. 169
t usually holding his royal court in the same mansions
of pollution; and compelling the ministers to apply
to his prostitutes for civil and religious promotion.
Sheldon was his favourite among the established
clergy, becausehe considered, and always spoke of
religion as a mere engine of government, and a mat
ter of policy ; for which Christian qualification he
was made, first, bishop of London, and then arch
bishop of Canterbury.
Lord Clarendon, at first, urged the importance of
relaxing the rigour of full formalism, introduced by
Laud into the English established church ; and of
making due concessions to the common sense and
consciences of men ; in order to induce the dissent
ers, particularly the presbyterians, to unite them
selves with the establishment. But Charles's state
bishops vehemently opposed this wise and berfevo-
lent measure, because the presbyterians were pos
sessed of most of the great benefices in the establish^
ed church, chiefly in London and in the universities
of Oxford and Cambridge.
• It is necessary to state, because it is either not
generally known, or, if known, studiously concealed
by most of the English church writers of the present
day, that all the clergy, who had been substituted in
the place of those ministers, who were sequestered by
the parliament or their visitors, were removed from
their livings and benefices at the restoration; as being
illegally possessed of other men's rights. And &his
was done even where the former incumbents were
dead ; because a title, deqmed originally defective,
was still eonsidered|as defective in law. So that the
two thousand evangelical ministers^ ejected by the
Bartholomew act, were so much additional balance
in favour of formalism and persecution ; and not a
mere measure of milder retaliation, on the part of
the state church ; as it is represented, even by some
of the most respectable English writers ; for exam
ple, the Christian Observer, and Mr. Southey, in his
Life of John Weslev.

170 MISTAKE OF THE &
At the restoration, a greftt number of the puritans '
were legally possessed of eminent posts in the esta
blished church. Many of these, especially in the
city of London, had been signally instrumental in
restoring Charles ; and on that score, were entitled
to gratitude and preferment from the crown. The
king, however, in seeming concert with his state bi
shops, affected to believe, that none ought to serve
him, Charles, (not Christ,) as the head of the nation
al church of England, but clergymen, firmly tied to
his interests, by tory principles, by political tests
and subscriptions, and by penal oaths.
Nevertheless, Charles, in the genuine spirit of
Stuart hypocrisy and fraud, put on the semblance of
moderation ; while he was engaged in another, and
a deeper, and a more deadly scheme, to which the
intolerant cruelty of the formal, secular, high church,.
state clergy, proved subservient, and aiding ; name-
¦ Jy, the introduction of popery, as the religion of En
gland. A popish queen kept this superstition in
fashion at court ; and the Romish priests were inde
fatigable in making converts and children for the old
lady of Babylon.
Before we enter upon the detail proof of this sum
mary of facts, it may be well to notice an apparent
error in the Christian Observer for 1811, in respect
to the supposed retaliation of the church, or rather,
of the state, by the Bartholomew act of Charles the
second. The writer of the review of Bogue and Bennet's
History of Dissenters, says, " we are happy that it
does not lie upon us, or upon the church, of which
we are member, to vindicate the conduct of the
government and clergy, in the treatment of the non
conformists. The church of England is no more im
plicated in this act of her ruling members, and those
who influenced her proceedings, at that time, than
the civil part of the constitution is accountable for
the conduct of such a judge as Jeffries. But there
is some plausibility in the argument, that the puritan

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. 171
ministers, who occupied the livings at the restora
tion, were usurpers ; and it was only depriving thenft
of what was not' their own, and of which they had
enjoyed the unjust profit for a long course of years,
to eject them from their benefices.
" We confess the measure would have pleased us
better, though then but little, had it been executed
on the honest, avowed principle of secular restitu
tion ; than, by prescribing terms of communion, with
which it was impossible for the puritans, with a safe
conscience to comply, to usurp the false appearance
of justice. The credit of the act of uniformity, we
would much more willingly give to the state, than to
the church. The expulsion, more especially, the si
lencing of such ministers, as those who refused to
conform, was a serious injury, both to the church and
to the nation."
To the liberal and catholic spirit of these re
marks, every Christian will cordially subscribe ; but
it seems a mistake, to suppose, that the act of uni
formity was passed, in order to get rid of those puri
tan ministers, who had been instituted in the place
of the sequestered episcopal clergy ; for all these
puritan substitutes were ejected before the passing of
the Bartholomew statute ; which was an additional^
blessing, bestowed by Charles, and his state bishops,
on the English established church, in driving out two
thousand evangelical clergymen from her bosom;
and leaving within it a goodly body of secular form
alists, who, certainly, did not, either in precept or
in practice, brighten the Scriptural doctrines of the
reformation. The Anglican Church has never yet recovered from
the effects of this deadly blow. From August 1662,
till the middle of the reign of George the second, a
period of eighty years, formalism and irreliaion per
vaded the great body of the English nationaTclergy ;
and, although since the year 1 742, a great revival of
religion has taken place among the national clergy ;
a revival, be it remembered, constantly and viru-

172 PROPORTION OF EVANGELICALS.
lently opposed and persecuted by the church esta
blishment, as such, by the great body of the bishops
and dignitaries of the secular governors, and of the
lay patrons; it is doubtful, if now, in 1822, there be
so many as two thousand evangelical ministers, out
of the whole number of the state elergy.
Nay, if there were as many evangelical clergymen,
now in the English establishment, as were cast out of
it on Bartholomew day, their proportion to the En
glish population is not quite one-third ; there being
in 1662, less than four millions of people in England
and Wales; whereas the returns in 1822, gave an
amount of more than twelve millions. Whence a
very minute portion of the laity of England, not one
twelfth, has an opportunity of hearing, within the
walls of their established church, the reformed, the
scriptural doctrines of her liturgy, articles, and homi
lies. ^In the history of his own time, bishop Burnet says,
the first point in debate between Charles and his
prelates, and cabinet ministers, was, if concessions
should be made, and pains taken to gain the dis
senters, especially the presbyterians. The earl of
Clarendon was much for it, and got the king to pub
lish a declaration, concerning ecclesiastical affairs,
to which, if he had stood, the greatest part of them
might have been gained ; but the bishops did not ap
prove of this ; and after the service they did that
lord, in tlie duke of York's marriage with his daugh
ter, he would not venture to differ from them. Which
diegusted lord Southampton, who was for carrying
on the design, much talked of during the wars, of
moderating matters, both in church government, and
in worship and ceremonies.
The consideration of the bishops and their party,
was, that the presbyterians possessed most of the
great benefices of the church, chiefly in London,
and in the two universities. It is true, continues
Burnet, all thot had come into the room of those,
who were turned out by the parliament, or their visit-

SHELDON. '< 173
ors, were removed by the course of law, as men
illegally possessed of other men's rights; and thai?*
even where the former incumbents were dead, be
cause a title, originally wrong, was still wrong in law.
But there were a great many of them, in very emi
nent posts, who were legally possessed of them. Ma
ny of these, chiefly in London, had gone into the
design of the restoration, in so signal a manner, and
with such success, that they had great merit, and a
just title to very high "preferment.
These, then, were the clergy who merited prefer
ment, that the state bishops desired to cast out, and
for whom they prepared the infamous act of uni
formity; and hot, as the Christian Observer sup
poses, the puritan ministers, who had been substi
tuted for the sequestered episcopal clergy ; seeing,
that they Were already driven forth. Nor can the
credit of the Bartholomew act be ascribed to the
state ; for the statesmen of England, including even
Clarendon, till he sacrificed both conscience and
wisdom on the shrine of family ambition, were
against the measure. The credit of endeavouring
to stifle evangelical religion in England, must be at
tached to the bishops of the established church ; at
that time headed by Sheldon, of whom Burnet says,
he seemed not to have a deep sense of religion, if
any, at all ; and spoke of it most commonly, as of an
engine of government, and a matter of policy ; by
this means, the king came to look on him, as a wise
and honest clergyman, because he had no sense of re
ligion. -,¦
Sheldon was first made bishop of London, and
upon Juxon's death, promoted to Canterbury. Have
not qualifications, similar to those of Sheldon, car
ried other clerks to the highest eminences in esta
blished churches; necessary as they are assumed to
be, for the promotion of piety, and the prevention of
paganism ?
The sad experience of history proves, that when
ever men are persecuted on account of their reli-

174 FORMAL CLERGY,
. gious opinions, the state church generally outruns the
civil government, in the race of persecution and cru
elty; an irreligious churchman being always a more
horrible fiend than an irreligious layman ; on the ac
knowledged ground, that the best things, when
abused, become the worst. A minister of the sanc
tuary ought to be more pure, more holy, more exem
plary, in all his life and conversation, than other men ;
but if he be a hypocrite, a formalist, an infidel, how
much greater is his wickedness, his disregard of all
the restraints of conscience, as well as his condem
nation !
In the. instance now under consideration, the secu
lar restitution had been already made, by removing,
in due course of law, all those puritan ministers,
with whom the parliament had filled up the vacant
benefices of the sequestered clergy ; and the act of
uniformity was a gratuitous curse, inflicted by the
bishops themselves on the church of England. Be
sides, if Gauden be correct in his statement, that the
sequestered clergy amounted to between six and
seven thousand, the ejecting only two thousand non
conformists by the Bartholomew act, was not a suffi
cient secular restitution, as it would still leave four
or five thousand usurpers untouched.
No, the object of Sheldon and his mitred brethren
was, to drive out of the established church, cler
gymen more conscientious, more scrupulously reli
gious than themselves. If ever the Anglican Church
is to recover from this deep stab into her vitals, it
can only be by the increase, among her clergy, of
such evangelical men as the Bartholomew act con
signed to penury, to imprisonment, to death. Such
ministers alone can preserve that clerical establish
ment from entire perdition. A secular, irreligious,
formal clergy is the most grievous curse, that can be
inflicted upon any church, or any nation ; and the
greater the number of such clerical formalists, the
greater is the aggregate amount of the curse.

# ESTABLISHED AND UNESTABLISHED. 175
It is worthy of notice, how immense must be the
difference, as to the national effect produced by a*
formal, irreligious clergy, in England, and in these
United States. Here, in this country, where no po
litical alliance exists between any one religious sect
and the state, if, in any particular communion, the
clergy should become, generally, formalists; and
keep back, or dilute, or pervert the distinguishing
doctrines of Christianity; the people would, gradu
ally file off, and betake themselves to some denomi
nation, where the Gospel is preached ; and the form
al sect, in consequence, would be depleted ; and
could recover its health and strength, only by a re
turn to evangelism in faith and life.
But in England, a formal state clergy thins the es
tablished church, to swell the ranks of hostile sects ;
of disqualified dissenters, of proscribed religionists.
And, whenever the national clergy shall have suffi
ciently lost the respect and confidence of the English
people, by the habitual, the systematic neglect of
their most sacred duties, that ecclesiastical esta
blishment must perish ; and of such an event, so in
timately interwoven is it with the secular interests of
the leading families in the British empire, no human
wisdom can possibly foresee the consequences, im
mediate and remote.
Burnet says, that on the restoration of Charles,
the very professions of piety and virtue were thrown
off; and that entertainments and drunkenness so
overran the three kingdoms, as to corrupt all their
morals. Great disorder and riot prevailed every
where ; together with a ridicule and scorn of all
religion. Charles himself had a good understand
ing, and a soft, affable manner, which pleased all
who came near him, until they found that no depend-
ance could be placed upon his ready made smiles.
kind words, and fair promises.
He seemed to have no sense of religion ; both at
prayers and sacrament, he took care to satisfy peo
ple, that he was not concerned in the employment.

176 • charles's popery.
He said once to Burnet, that he was no atheist, but
tcould not think that God would make a man misera
ble, only for taking a little pleasure. He disguised
his popery to the last; but when he talked freely, he
reviled the liberty, which, under the reformation,
men took of inquiring into matters of religion ;
whence they were apt to inquire into matters of
state. And he often said, government was safer
where the authority was believed infallible ; and the
faith and submission of the people implicit.
Doubtless, Charles, like every other perfidious,
and hardhearted tyrant, preferred popery to pro
testantism, as a better instrument of enslaving both
the souls and bodies of the people ; but Charles was
the avowed legal head of the English established
protestant church ; and the sworn defender of its
most holy faith.
Soon after his restoration, it was observed, that he
would not marry a protestant ; and a match was ne
gotiated between him and the infanta of Portugal.
So base and besotted were the English and Scottish
parliaments, that, though they had seen the perdition
produced by the popish queen of the first Charles,
no one moved against this measure, except the earl
of Cassilis, in Scotland, who proposed an address
for the king to marry a protestant. When the archbi
shop of Canterbury performed the marriage ceremo
ny, in the summer of 1662, the queen wras so bigoted
a papist, that she would not make the responses, nor
endure the sight of the primate. Charles muttered
the words hastily, and they were pronounced mar
ried persons. They were privately married in the
popish way, by lord Aubigny, and James, afterwards
king of England, was one of the witnesses.
She was a mean looking, ill tempered woman,
whom Charles soon neglected, and visited his mis
tresses openly. Nay, so regardless of all exterior
decency was this supreme head of the established
Anglican Church, that, for the peculiar edification of
his chaplains, bishops, and courtiers, he usually

PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE'. 177
went from the lodgings of these accommodating la
dies, to the national church, even on sacrament Sun
days, when this devout monarch received the holy
communion. For, those protestant English bishops,
who framed the Bartholomew act, had no notion of
imitating the conduct of that patriarch of Constan
tinople, who refused to admit his flagitious emperor
to the Lord's table. The enraged sovereign replied
— " I will communicate, for I have sinned like Da
vid." " Go then," rejoined the primate, " and repent of
your murder and adultery, like David, before you
presume to commemorate the Saviour's death."
Charles held his court in these unhallowed cham
bers, while, to the presiding priestesses, application
was made for clerical and secular preferment. The
earls of Southampton and Clarendon were the only
two of all the spiritual and lay expectants, who
would not stoop to solicit favours in these kennels of
royal prostitution.
Bishop Burnet thus describes some of Charles's
leading prelates : Juxbn, archbishop of Canterbury,
had never been much of a divine, and was noW su
perannuated and disregarded by the king. Sheldon
had been reputed learned, before the wars ; but was
now so deep in politics, that scarcely any prints of
learning remained. He was dexterous in business,
quick of apprehension, shrewd in judgment; very
courteous in manner, but few depended on his pro
fessions of friendship. He won Charles's good
opinion, by always treating religion as a mere po
litical machine ; and therefore, obtained Lambeth at
Juxon's death.
Morley was a Calvinist, as to the Arminian points,
and was thought a friend to the puritans before the
wars ; from which suspicion; however, he thoroughly
cleared himself, after he was made a state bishop.
He was first raised to the see of Worcester, then of
Winchester; and although he did not make the best
use of the great wealth, which flowed in upon him,
23

178 PRESENT STATE CHURCH.
he was a much honester, though less able man than
Sheldon. If it be said by the advocates of a national church
establishment* that things are ndw ordered better in
England ; that Charles the second was a bad man
and a licentious hypocrite ; an ostensible protestant,
and a concealed papist ; that the British constitution
was not then settled ; but that now, the English go
vernment always selects proper men to fill the epis
copal bench; the answer is obvious: that the inti
mate alliance between chtrrch and state, in England,
is, to the full* as pernicious in its tendencies to stifle
pure, evangelical religion, now, as it was in the time
of the Stuarts ; at least, so far as the general provid
ing of bishops and dignitaries for the establishmerit,
reaches ; the comparatively very few evangelical ap
pointments being merely exceptions to, and deviations
from, the ordinary current of state church patronage.
To be sure, the law, as established at the revolu
tion of 1688, and somewhat modified since, does not
now permit the national clergy to persecute and op-
press the dissenters, as they did under the sacred
auspices of the second Charles ; but the church of
England is still regularly filled with secular, formal,
irreligious bishops, priests and deacons. No other
proof is wanting of the necessary tendency to evil, en
gendered by the close connexion of the Anglican
Church with a secular empire, than the simple fact,
that, in the present age, the British government has
actually made such clerks as Tomline, Marsh and
Mant, bishops ; for the sole merit of having laboured
to explain away the essential doctrines of the church
of England, as expressed in her articles ; and to
fasten the foul stain of popery upon a protestant esta
blishment, by imposing upon it the burdens of dou
ble justification, of unscriptural, sophisticated ques
tions, and of baptismal regeneration.
Not one of the four Stuarts ever committed an act
of deadlier hatred against those evangelical doc-

SECULAR CLERGY. 179
urines ;, to establish, which, our venerable reformers
underwent the agonizing horrors of martyrdom. But
ex quovis ligno fit Mercurius ; a formal, secular, ir
religious bishop may be carved out of any block of
wood. • -
The truth is, the English established church is a
political machine, invented, and put into operation
for the purpose of swelling the patronage and influ
ence of the crown, nominally* but really of the exist
ing administration ; and also, of providing an easy
and, an ample subsistence for the younger branches
of the noble and gentle families of the realm. For
these exclusively regal, political and aristocratic ob
jects, the religion and mprakof the English people
are put in perpetual jeopardy. If the archbishops,
bishops, deans, prebendaries, canons, archdeacons,
rectors, vicars, curates, throughout the whole of that
complicated hierarchy, were to acquit themselves,
generally, as faithful, evangelical ministers, it would
be impossible for so large a body of audacious infidels,
and radicals, to swarm, like a pestilence, in the Bri
tish isles.
But while a secular government, and a lay patron
age, to the utter exclusion of the congregations from
all part, an(| lot, and voice in the selection of the
clerk who^Uo administer to them spiritually, con
tinue to fillpe church with bishops, and dignitaries,
and other clerical incumbents ; it is not possible to
create an evangelical clergy in the English establish
ment; seeing that we have no right to expect, in the
ordinary course of human affairs, that the king and
his cabinet ministers, and the nobility and gentry of
the British empire, generally, shall ever be, them
selves, evangelically inclined; and, consequently,
disposed to turn the stream of their church patron
age into an evangelical channel.
Neither is enmity to vital Christianity, and to the
distribution of the Holy Scriptures, and a decided
preference of popery to all protestant dissent from
the state church, confined to the Anglican hierarchsf

180 charles's bishops.
but it also pervades the inferior clergy ; a notable
example of which we have in the proposal of the
reverend Samuel Wix, A. M. F. R. and A. S. S. to
unite the Roman and Anglican Churches, in the in
dissoluble bonds of family alliance, for the openly
avowed purpose of putting down the British and
Foreign Bible Society, and of exterminating all pro
testant dissenters. A letter, in reply to Mr. Wix, by
Dr. Burgess, bishop of St. David's, printed at Car
marthen, in 1820, will show, that all the episcopal
bench in England is not yet tainted with the leprosy
of formalism ; which, in effect, reduces Christianity
to virtual popery, by divesting it of all spirituality.
When a shyness had been excited between South
ampton and Clarendon, in consequence of Claren
don's shifting sides, and co-operatirg with Charles's
state bishops, to drive all puritans out of the Angli
can Church, the prelates adopted the following
mode of spiritual reasoning, to induce Charles to
break his royal word ; to falsify his own printed de
claration, and to entail the curse of intolerance, of
persecution, and of impiety, upon the British empire.
These worthy, conscientious bishops said, it was
better to have a schism out of the church, than in it;
that the half conformity of the puritans, before the
civil war, had set up a faction in every ci±E and town,
between the lecturers and incumbents^Bwhich was
hostile to the government of church and state ; that
the king ought to have none to serve him, Charles, in
the church, but men firmly tied to his interests, by
subscriptions, and oaths, and pains, and penalties ;
that, though the king now had a parliament, ready to
go all lengths at his bidding, he could not expect such
success always ; and therefore, it was best to make
sure work at this time ; and instead of bringing in
the sectaries, to seek the most effectual means of
casting them out, and introducing a new set of men
into the church.
To this truly scriptural mode of episcopal argu
mentation, Charles professed to agree ; because he

SAVOY, CONFERENCE. 181
wanted tq nse the unchristian violence of these pro
testant prelates, for an instrument to introduce pope*
ry into England, as the state religion.
The court of Charles, and his queen, and James,
thought, that a general toleration would best promote
this scheme of restoring popery to its pristine domi
nation; and nothing, they supposed, could procure
an open toleration for popery, but driving great bo
dies of men out of the English protestant episcopal
church, and harassing them with severe laws ; which
would force them to ask for a toleration ; and the
government intended to make it large enough to in
clude, and cover, and protect the papists. Whence
the papists openly avowed, that they would oppose
all plans for a comprehension that might reconcile all
protestants together, and would labour to excite the
high churchmen against the puritans ; which the
formalists called zeal for the church of England.
The papists, however, at the same time, spoke of
a general toleration, as necessary for the ; peace and
quiet of the nation, and for the encouragement of
trade. The duke of York declared himself a vio
lent; enemy to comprehension, and as zealous for to
leration ; so natural is it for papists and protestant
episcopal formalists to unite together, to; crush all
evangelical religion. Herod and Pilate were recon
ciled, when the Lord of life was to be crucified.
Charles, being determined to make the terms of
conformity, at least, as rigorous as they were under
his father, and the execrable Laud, affected an ap
pearance of moderation, until a new parliament
should disclose the strength of the respective poli
tical parties. Wherefore, in furtherance of this
royal and prelatical scheme of hypocrisy and fraud,
after the declaration was published, a commission
was granted to twelve, with nine assistants on each
side, to meet at the Savoy, and consider the means of
uniting both.
At their first meeting, Sheldon said, the church
men had not desired the meeting; for they were sa-

1 82 BAXTER — GUNNING.
tisfied with the legal establishment ;. and the puritans
njnst give, in writing, all their proposed alterations,
at once ; whereas, an amicable conference had been
promised. Papers were given in ; the presbyterians
moving, that archbishop Usher's reduction should be
the basis on which to treat ; that bishops should not
govern their diocese by their own single authority,
nor depute it to lay officers in their courts ; but in or*
dination and jurisdiction, should use the counsel and
the concurrence of the presbyters. They excepted
to the responses in the liturgy ; to the lessons taken
from the Apocrypha ; to the use of psalms translated
from the vulgate, instead of the new English version ;
to those parts of the office of baptism, importing the
inward regeneration of all the baptized ; to a com
pelled posture at the Lord's Supper; to the use of
the surplice, the cross in baptism, of godfathers, as
sponsors, and of holy-days. They likewise offered
a liturgy, newly drawn by Richard Baxter.
Sheldon availed himself of the multitude of their
objections ; and above all, of their offering a new
liturgy ; and a loud outcry was raised against them,
as persons whom nothing could satisfy. The whole
matter was, at length, reduced to one point ; namely,
if it were lawful to determine the certain use of
things indifferent in the worship of God ? Upon this
question they disputed some days ; Baxter being the
chief speaker for the puritans. Gunning, afterwards
bishop of Chichester, and then of Ely, for the church
men. Baxter's character is well known. Mr. Wilber-
force, in his u. Practical View," ranks him among the
highest names of the Anglican Church ; ranks him
with Davenant, Jewell, Hall, Reynolds, Beveridge,
Hooker, Andrews, Leighton, Usher, Hopkins, and a
host of other great evangelical divines. " I must,"
says this eminent statesman, patriot, philanthropist
and Christian, "class among the brightest ornaments
of the church of England, this great man, who, with his

STRICTER CONFORMITY. 183
brethren, was so shamefully ejected from the church
m 1662, in violation of the royal word, as well as of
tie clear principles of justice."
Gunning is described by Burnet, as a man of great
reading, and special subtlety of arguing; using all
the arts of sophistry on all occasions, as confidently
as if they had been sound reasoning; and earnest for
reconciling the Roman and Anglican Churches, to ef
fect which he laboured to clear popery from the
charge of idolatry. He wanted the church of En
gland to pray for the dead; to use oil in unction;
and to adopt many other parts of the popish ritual.
Ihe dispute between this protestant papist and
Baxter, consumed the whole time allotted for the
commission; and nothing was settled. The state
bishops insisted upon the existing laws; and charged
the puritans with schism, for having excepted to the
discipline of the established church. The puritans
were industriously represented as enemies to all or
der; much heat and personal animosity were exhibit
ed at the Savoy conference; and when Baxter said
that such things would offend many good men in the
nation, Steam, archbishop of York, observed, that the
puritan would not say kingdom, but nation, because
he would not acknowledge a king. A return suffi
ciently vile for the zeal, which the presbyterians had
shown, in bringing about the restoration of Charles
1 his conference only increased the mutual dislike
ot both parties The presbyterians complained to
the king who disregarded them; and the state bi
shops laboured to render the terms of conformitv
much stricter than they were under Laud. Whence
it was resolved to subject Uecturers, as weU as in
cumbents, to oaths' and subscriptions ;, and compel
all persons to subscribe an unfeigned assent and con
sent to all and every particular contained in the
common prayer book; the act requiring an assent
and consent to the use of all things in that book.
Another subscription was enacted, in relation to the

184 FOREIGN ORDINATION.
league and covenant, declaring it unlawful, upon any
grounds, to take arms against the king, and that the
covenant was, in itself, an unlawful oath.
This blow was levelled against the old men, who
had taken , the covenant ; an oath, which Charles
himself had swallowed, and as thoroughly digested
as he did every other oath.
Formerly, those who came to England from other
churches, were not required to be ordained there ; a
community of faith being considered as giving a com
mon validity to each other's ordinances. But, by
the act of uniformity, all clerks, not episcopally or
dained, were rendered incapable of holding any ec
clesiastical benefice in the church of England. The
bishops made some alterations in the liturgy; adding
new collects ; as, the prayer for all conditions of
men, and the general thanksgiving. They were base
enough, in .the collect for the parliament, to style
Charles their most religious king: a novel epithet,
which occasioned much indecent mirth in that infa
mous and impious monarch's own court.
One addition of importance, however, was made
by Gawden's men ; namely, a declaration, explain
ing why they knelt at the sacrament ; inserted in Ed
ward's, but omitted in Elizabeth's liturgy. The pa
pists were highly offended at this express declaration
against the real presence; and the duke of York
asked Sheldon how they came to declare against
that doctrine? Sheldon answered, "ask Gawden,
who is a bishop of your own making ;" for Charles
had, himself, ordered Gawden to be made bishop.
The convocation, also, added some new holy-days,
to wit : Saint Barnabas, and the conversion of Paul ;
took in more lessons from the Apocrypha, particu
larly, Bel and the Dragon ; and penned two new of
fices ; the thirtieth of January, called king Charles
the martyr, in which a blasphemous comparison is
made between the merits of Christ, and of the de
capitated monarch; and the twenty-ninth of May,
the auspicious day of Charles the second's gracious

FRENCH BARTHOLOMEW. 185
birth, and most felicitous restoration. These offices
were drawn up by Sancroft, in a very high strain of
formal flattery.
The choice and returns of the members of the
convocation were so managed, as to make them all
move, like so many puppets, directed by Sheldon
and Morley. When they had finished, they offered
their alterations to the king, who sent them to the
commons, where the act of uniformity was prepared
by Keeling, afterwards chief justice. When the act
was brought into the house, many apprehended the
evil consequences of its severity ; whereupon, the
house was filled with prodigious rumours of presby
terian plots in several counties. Many were taken
upon these reports; none were tried ; and all were
liberated, as soon as the pious fraud had effected its
purpose ; to wit, — the passing of this most execrable
statute; which, after all the flagitious efforts of
Charles, and his state bishops, passed only by a lean
majority. By the provisions of this ever memorable act, all,
who did not conform to the liturgy by the 24th of
August, Bartholomew' day, in 1662, were deprived Of
all ecclesiastical benefices in the state church ; leav
ing no discretionary power with the king to exercise
the prerogative of mercy in its execution; and
making no provision for the maintenance of those
thus deprived of all the means of subsistence. A se
verity this, of Charles's established bishops, not prac
tised, even by the arbitrary Elizabeth, in enacting
her liturgy; nor by the usurping Cromwell, in eject
ing the episcopal clergy. For, in both these instan
ces, one-fifth of the benefice was bylaw reserved for
the maintenance of the ejected clerks.
In many parts of England, the ministers could not
procure the common prayer book, before the day
on which they were to swear to it, or lose their liv
ings. Honest men called to mind the Bartholomew,
held in Paris, ninety years before, in 1572; on which
day, a popish government, headed by its king,
24

186 EJECTED MINISTERS.
Charles, who fired repeatedly, with his. own hand,
upon the French people, from the windows of the
palace, butchered thirty thousand protestants ; mas-
s"acreing all the Huguenots they could find and mas
ter, without distinction of age or sex.
The prayer book, with the new corrections, which
they were to subscribe, was printed so slowly, and
with so many purposed delays, that very few copies
were ready, when that fatal day came ; whence, ma
ny ministers, well affected to the church, but making
Conscience, as well they might, (whatever formalists
may think of an oath, when weighed in the scales
against a church living,) of swearing to a book they
had not seen, left their benefices on that very ac
count. Many hastened to London, on purpose to see
it ; but the great body of the established church cler
gy swore point blank, their assent and consent to a
book, which they had never seen. The presbyteri
ans had many meetings about conformity ; Reynolds
accepted the bishopric of Norwich ; but Calamy
and Baxter refused the sees of Litchfield and Here
ford. Full two thousand ministers were ejected, leaving
in the established church its entire compliment of
formal, secular, irreligious clergy ; an order of men,
which generally, nay, necessarily, flourishes, in propor
tion to the intimate connexion between secular and
ecclesiastical government ; an order of men, which,
certainly, from the day of Bartholomew, in 1662, to
the present hour, has constituted a fearful majority
of bishops, priests, and deacons, in the Anglican
Church. Mr. Locke styles these ejected ministers, learned,
pious, orthodox divines ; and without a peradven
ture, their superiors in piety, talent, learning, and
integrity, the world has never seen ; as abundantly
appears from their writings, life, and conversation.
A contemporary churchman, but not a formalist,
says, "I am glad so many have chosen suffering,
rather than conformity to the establishment ; for had

NONCONFORMISTS. 187
they complied, the world would have thought there
was nothing in religion. But now they have a strik
ing proof that some are sincere in their profession.
They have suffered the loss of all things; is it for
mere honour, not conscience or religion ? have they
so little wit, as not to know what is best, good livings
or nasty prisons? do they hate their wives and
children ? They declare, they cannot conform ; who
should know best, they, or we ?"
Richard Baxter told bishop Burnet, that if Charles,
had faithfully kept the terms of his own declaration,
not more than three hundred ministers would have
been deprived. Scarcely any of the high church
episcopalians disapproved of this atrocious act,
which cast out so many excellent men to penury, and
ignominy and suffering ; which heaped upon them so
much spiteful usage and persecution ; which com
pelled them to form separate congregations, and to lay
the basis of an ever widening dissent from the English
church establishment ; whose own formalism, unless
it be crushed or checked, will, eventually, draw
down the ruin of that establishment, without the
concurrent aid of hostility from any other quarter.
The blame of all this iniquity fell heavily on
Sheldon, whom Charles had made archbishop of
Canterbury, for having no sense of religion. Cla
rendon, also, was charged with fraud, in entertaining
the presbyterians with fair promises, while he Was
aiding thejiftfamous scheme of the state bishops ;
contrary to his own better judgment, as well as in
direct violation of all the principles of integrity.
From this time, the name of puritan was exchang
ed for that of nonconformist ; including presbyteri
ans, independents, baptists, and quakers. They pe
titioned Charles for an indulgence ; which he was in
clined to grant, in order to cover the papists ; but
the parliament gave him money, to supply his ex
travagance, and promote his profligacy ; in conse
quence of which, the nonconformists were left to the
tender mercies of formal high churchmen, who ge-

188 GRASPING STATE CLERGY.
nerally have about as much mercy, as there is milk
in a male tiger.
Some of the ejected ministers practised occasional
conformity, by attending the established church,
and joining in its worship ; although they could not,
conscientiously, swear assent to every thing in the
prayer book. Dr. Calamy being present at his late
parish of Aldermanbury, London, was invited to
preach, as the person expected to officiate did not
come. For complying with this request, he was cast
into Newgate.
When the convocation had new modelled the
prayer book, it was proposed, under a clause in
Charles's license, to consider the canons of the church.
They had the power then to reform many abuses ;
particularly, to remedy those springing from the poor
maintenance of inferior incumbents. Almost all
the church leases in England had fallen in ; and the
fines for their renewal amounted to a million and a
half sterling, about seven millions of dollars; the
whole of which was pocketed by the conforming state
clergy ; not a farthing being applied to augment the
poorer livings. In some sees, forty or fifty thousand
pounds sterling, beside the annual income, fell to the
bishop's share. In this, Clarendon was charged, as
being a greater friend to the existing state bishops,
than to the Anglican Church itself.
The grasping these immense fines by the bishops,
afforded a laudable example to all the ^lower esta
blished dignitaries, which they scrupulously follow
ed ; and took much better care of themselves, than
the interests, whether spiritual or temporal, of the
church. With this vast accession of wealth, luxury,
high living, and dissipation, broke in upon the state
clergy ; many of whom made large purchases of land,
and left great estates. The elder clerks, not merely
the bishops, for English bishops, generally speaking,
have never been guilty of frequent preaching, of any
kind, but smaller ecclesiastics, also, became lazy, and
negligent of all the true concerns of the church ; they

PHILOSOPHICAL DIVINES. 189
left preaching and writing to others ; and gave them
selves up to ease, and sloth, and bodily indulgence.
So few were the exceptions to such unprincipled
conduct* that bishop Burnet says, if a new set of
men of another stamp had not appeared, the esta
blished English church would have, altogether, lost
her esteem in the eyes of the nation.
These men, according to Burnet, were, for the
most part, formed under the celebrated divines,
Whitchcot, Cudworth, Wilkins, More and Worthing-
ton. Their main object was to establish men in the
gf-eat principles of religion, against the tide of atheism
and impiety, which was flowing all over the country,
from the profligacy of the king and his court, and
from the formalism of the established clergy.
Whitchcot used his whole influence to protect good
men of all persuasions ; was a great advocate for li
berty of conscience; laboured to amend the dry, sys
tematic preaching of his day; set his students to
peruse the ancient philosophers, chiefly Plato, Tully,
and Plotin ; and taught them to consider Christianity
as a religion sent from God, to elevate and sweeten
human nature. Cudworth pushed the same scheme,
with vast genius and immense learning.
Wilkins married Cromwell's sister, and laboured
to divert, men from party violence, narrow notions,
superstitious conceits, and fierceness about opinions.
More was an openhearted Christian philosopher, who
laboured strenuously against the atheism, then gain
ing ground, and much forwarded by Hobbes, whose
Leviathan had taught the materiality of the soul ; that
interest and fear are the chief principles of human
society; that all morality consists in following our
own private will or advantage ; that religion has no
other foundation than the law of the land ; which law
consists in the absolute will of the government, whe
ther royal or republican.
These abominable notions found willing recipients
in Charles himself, in his courtiers generally, and in
too many throughout the nation at large.

190 INFIDELITY — FORMALISJffl.
To counteract these impieties, the Cambridge' di
vines laboured to set forth the principles of religion
and morality, on philosophical grounds. Would it not
have been better to preach the pure, unsophisticated
Gospel ? seeing that the experience of all time shows,
that the infidelity, natural to the human heart, and
fostered by intercourse with the world, gives way to
the foolishness of faithful preaching, when it only
hardens its front against all the efforts of the unas
sisted wisdom and science of philosophy; and seeing
also, that infidelity was never more rife in England,
than during the whole period when her philosophical
divines, from Cudworth to Butler, were employed in
buttressing up the outworks of revelation ; and seeing,
likewise, that infidelity has been beaten down in En
gland to a greater extent, during the last fifty years,
since evangelical preaching has found its way into the
established church, as well as pervaded the worship
of the orthodox dissenters, than it was from the Bar
tholomew persecution, in 1662, down to the middle
of the reign of George the second ; an interval of
nearly an entire century.
The prevalence of formalism in any church, but
more especially in a national establishment, of what
ever persuasion, denomination, or sect, is a broad,
and deep, and perennial fountain of infidelity, and its
inseparable adjuncts, immorality and profligacy.
These English divines, however, and those trained
by them, studied to examine further into the " nature
of things," than other men ; they declared alike against
superstition and fanaticism; they were warmly attach
ed to the constitution of the Anglican Church, and
her liturgy ; but did not think it unlawful to live un
der another form of ecclesiastical government or wor
ship. They wished more moderation to be shown
to nonconformists and dissenters ; for which spirit of
Christian tolerance, the fiercer episcopal formalists
fastened upon them the appellation of latitudinarians ;
and stigmatized them as enemies to " the church."
Doubtless, their keeping up a friendly intercourse

EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA. 191
with those who differed from them in opinion, as to
ecclesiastical matters, arid allowing a liberal range
in philosophy and divinity, would be peculiarly of
fensive to all, who rank churchmanship higher than
Christianity. Such persons, bearing a close intel
lectual resemblance to the Austrian emperor, as ex
hibited in his own precious declaration to the Lay-
bach professors, in 1821. This sapient, royal form
alist referred the academicians to the times that are
past ; " stick to what is old," quoth this imperial
feeder of tame rabbits, " whatever is old, is good ; I
want not learned men, but good subjects."
This is the veritable language of formalism, both
in church and state ; blind, passive obedience, not a
reasonable service, is required* alike by the formal
bishop, and the secular despot. The emperor of
Austria has manifested his undissembled hostility to
piety and learning, by a still more recent measure ;
namely, the expulsion of all protestant teachers from
his dominions, and consigning the whole education of
the empire to the care and tuition of the most holy
order of the Jesuits. This is, indeed, a bold attempt
to put the intellectual clock of Europe back, one
thousand years ; and to veil the nineteenth in the
darkness of the ninth century. But the attempt must
fail; there is too much light in other parts of the
world, to prevent an occasional ray from now and
then piercing, even into the thick gloom of Austria.
These divines read Episcopius much ; but were
strenuous assailants of popery; whence the papists,
who are generally the stoutest of all possible formal
ists, branded them as atheists, and deists, and So
cinians. And to prove this charge, the Romanists
themselves occupied the ground of atheism, by af
firming, that there is no other certain proof of Chris
tianity, than the authority of the Roman church ;
thereby showing their preference of atheists to pro
testants ; which is the very essence of bigoted and
sectarian formalism. The papists joined forces with
Hobbes and his followers, so far as to publish books,

1 92 POPERY  IRENICUM.
declarihg, that the truth of Christianity rests ent
upon the authority of their infallible church. Which
proves, that they had rather men would become
atheists, if they will not turn papists, than believe
the revelation of God, on the testimony of his own
word ; or on any other ground, besides that of pa
pal infallibility.
The most eminent of those, who were formed un
der these great divines, were Tillotson, Stillingfleet,
and Patrick. Tillotson was esteemed the best
preacher of his age ; was a decided enemy to pope
ry, and persecution, and atheism ; and was the ob
ject of perpetual abuse and calumny to the formal
high churchmen, in the establishment. Stillingfleet
was a much more learned man. While yet young,
he wrote his Irenicum ; a work of great learning and
moderation ; for the express purpose of healing the
breaches between churchmen and nonconformists.
In it he labours to show, that the apostles had set
tled the Christian church, in a constitution of bi
shops, priests, and deacons ; but had made no per
petual law about it ; having only taken it, as they had
borrowed many other things, from the customs and
practice of the Jewish synagogue ; whence, he in
fers, that such a constitution is lawful, because au
thorized by them ; but not necessary, since they had
made no settled law respecting it.
This book was exceedingly clamoured against, as
an attempt against the Anglican Church; but the
argument was managed with so much learning and
skill, that its enemies never undertook to answer it.
Afterwards, when Stillingfleet saw a state mitre in
the perspective, he retracted his Irenicum; and
yielded largely to the humours of those high
churchmen, who profess to hold the .divine, the ex
clusive right of episcopacy ; and consign all other reli
gious denominations to an wwcovenanted contingency.
Stillingfleet also wrote in a most masterly manner
against popery and infidelity. Patrick was a great
preacher, and a voluminous writer. His comment-

NEW STYLE OF PREACHING. 193
ary on a large portion of the Old Testament, from
Genesis to Canticles, both inclusive, is too well
known to require remark. He was diligent in the
discharge of his clerical functions ; but too severe
against those who differed from him in opinion. As
he gf-ew older, however, he became more moderate.
To these, bishop Burnet adds Lloyd ; an Oxford
student, bred by bishop Wilkins. He was more
learned than any of them ; a great Greek and Latin
critic, chiefly in the Scriptures ; and was supposed
to have read, and digested more than any divine of
his afge ; yet never neglected his pastoral care, in
the parish of St. Martin's, the largest cure in En
gland; which he discharged with a Zealand appli
cation, that cast a deep reproach upon the general
remissness and negligence of the established clergy.
These men contributed much to improve the style
of preaching in the English church ; which, at that
time, was grievously debased by pedantry ; by a
large medley of quotations from the Greek and Latin
fathers, and from ancient heathens ; by a long open
ing of the text, with a concordance of every word in
it, and a setting forth of all their different expositions,
with the grounds thereof, and an exhibition of some
controversial points; all wound up in a most lame
and impotent conclusion, of a very short, very im
perfect, very general, very vague application to the
consciences and circumstances of the congregation.
For this mode of sermonizing, in itself, long and
heavy, flat and low, patched and piebald with
many coloured rags of different tongues ; was sub
stituted a short paraphrase of the text, an exposi
tion of real difficulties, an avoidance of all unneces
sary shows of learning, an ample opening and ex
planation of the subject matter ; and, on the whole,
so instructive a course of preaching, as not only to
secure a numerous audience, but also to raise the
reputation of, and to soften the prejudices against,
the established church ; at a time when religion ex-
ceedirigly languished in England, and the church-
25

194 BARTHOLOMEW EXECUTION.
men, generally, were much more intent on flattering
an iniquitous government, on grasping ecclesiastical
preferment, and on persecuting the nonconformists ;
than on preaching the Gospel in its simple purity ;
and faithfully discharging their pastoral duty towards
the unhappy flocks, committed to their spiritual
care. Charles's cabinet council debated much, if the
Bartholomew act should be punctually executed.
Some moved to delay its execution to the next ses
sion of parliament ; others, that, in its execution,
some eminent men might be suffered to preadh on,
till they died, placing curates in their churches, to
read the prayer book. The earl of Manchester laid
all these things before Charles ; but Sheldon, like
another Laud, snuffing the scent of human blood,
pressed the prompt and rigorous execution of the law ;
promising that he would fill all the forsaken pulpits
in London, with better men than their present incum
bents. The ejected ministers cast themselves upon the
providence of God for support, rather than belie
their consciences ; which obtained the respect and
esteem of all honest men ; while the established,
formal clergy, now wallowing in wealth, and luxury,
and dissipation, were as much despised and execrat
ed. Verily, these, and all other persecuting form
alists, shall have their reward.
After Bartholomew's day, the dissenters, seeing
the merciless cruelty of Charles, and his state bi
shops, consulted how they should act : many pro
posed to go to Holland, and settle there with their
ministers; while some preferred New-England. On
this, the earl of Bristol drew to his house a meeting
of the chief papists in London, to whom, after an
oath of secrecy, he said, that now was the time to
begin to bring in popery, by means of a toleration,
wide enough to cover both the nonconformists and
themselves. Lord Aubigny seconded the motion,
saying, it was so visibly England's interest to retain

CONVENTICLE ACT. 195
within her own bosom so large a body of trading
men, that it would be popular for the papists to seem
zealous for it.
Charles approved of the scheme, and in Decem
ber, 1662, put forth a declaration, expressing his own
aversion from all severities on account of religion ;
and, more especially, his dislike to all sanguinary
laws ; and holding out hopes, both to papists and
nonconformists, that he would so temper the severity
of the laws, as to render all hfs subjects easy. The
nonconformists, perceiving the rank odour of popery
in the royal hypocrite's declaration, received it
coldly ; but the papists began forthwith to prepare
a plan for their own toleration ; which was not easy,
because some were willing to take the oath of alle
giance, which renounces the pope's deposing ipoxver ;
a deadly sin, for which the Internuncio, at Brussels,
denounced them as traitors against the holy see.
Bishop Burnet says, that, at this time, the papists
feared nothing so much as a union of churchmen and
presbyterians, which would have been fatal 'to the
cause of popery in England. The papists had two
maxims, from which they never departed ; one, to
divide the English protestants; the other, to keep
themselves united; and, either to procure an indiscri
minate toleration, or a general persecution. This
popish scheme the established church formalists pro
moted, in order to crush all evangelism among the
state clergy.
In the year 1 663, Charles and his bishops had the
conventicle act passed, empowering justices of the
peace to convict offenders, without the intervention
of a jury ; a manifest breach of the English constitu
tion ; if England could be said to have any consti
tution, while labouring under the execrable dynasty
of the Stuarts. Any meeting for religious worship,
at which five more than the family were present, was
declared a conventicle. And every one above six
teen, present at it, was to lie three months in prison,
or psty five pounds, for the first offence ; the penalty

196 FIVE MILE ACT.
for the second offence was six months' imprisonment,
or a fine of twenty pounds ; for the third, banishment
to any plantation, except New-England or Virginia;
and if they returned from banishment, they were to
suffer death.
The oath of a single informer was sufficient to ena
ble a justice of the peace to inflict all this severity ;
and while many of the best men in England, best in
piety, talents, learning and integrity, crowded the
gaols of that country, the basest of the human race
rioted in vulgar debauchery, by informing for the
sake of the reward.
But no measure of vindictive cruelty could satisfy
the formal state clergy, who, in 1665, induced the
parliament to pass a law, called the five mile act ;
prohibiting the nonconformists from approaching any
corporate town, unless they would take an oath of
passive obedience and nonresistance. They were
also forbidden to keep school, or take boarders ; and
thus were deliberately consigned, by men who pass
ed for protestant clergymen, to actual starvation, be
cause they feared God rather than man ; and lived
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The cause of this act was as infamous as its exe
cution was cruel. When London was visited with
the plague, the great body of the established clergy
ran away, and left their flocks to perish. The non
conformists went into the empty pulpits, and preach
ed the Gospel to a people, deserted by their own
parish priests, under the most awful of all human ca
lamities. This was too heinous a crime to pass un
punished ; and a bill was brought into the house of
commons, the court and parliament then sitting at
Oxford, requiring all the silenced ministers to take an
oath, declaring it not lawful, on any pretence, to take
arms against the king, or any commission by him ; and
that they would not, at any time, endeavour an alter
ation in the government of church and state.
On refusal to swear, they were not to come within
five miles of any city, or parliament borough, or the

Charles's hypocrisy. 197
church which they had formerly served. This infa<-
mous bill was opposed in the house of lords by the
earl of Southampton, who said, that^e could not him
self take such an oath; for, as things were managed,
he might see cause to endeavour an alteration. Of
all the state bishops, Sheldon and Ward were the
most eager to pass this, act ; in which they were
joined by all the patrons of popery ; their constant
maxim being to reduce the dissenters to such a des
perate state, that they should be compelled to ask for
a toleration on Charles's own terms.
Nay, the established clergy faction would not suf
fer the word " legally" to be added to " commissioned
by the king." The act was passed, and plunged the
nonconformists into great extremities. They could
not, conscientiously, take such an oath ; nor did they
know how to locate themselves in any part of En
gland, under the terms of the law, which deprived
many of them of all the means of their subsistence.
The nonconformists were harassed by fine and
imprisonment, without cessation, until the year 1667,
when the ill success of his impolitic and iniquitous
War against the Dutch, induced Charles to endea
vour to recover some portion of the attachment of
the English people, which his unprincipled, and ar
bitrary conduct had deservedly destroyed. He
knew, full well, that slackening the execution of the
laws against dissenters, would please the city of
Lbndon, and the trading part of the nation gene
rally ; wherefore, at intervals, the persecution was
somewhat mitigated.
Burnet says, that Charles had such a command of
himself, that when his interest led him to serve any
end, or to court any sort of men, he did it so dex
terously and with such an air of sincerity, that, till
men were well practised in him, he was apt to im
pose on them. He seemed now to be so hearty in the
cause of moderation and comprehension, that sir Or
lando Bridgman and bishop Wilkins believed him to
be in earnest; although there was nothing in which

198 making a bishop.
his popish counsels were more fixed, than to oppose
all such plans. But Charles saw that it was neces
sary to recover the good opinion of the English peo
ple ; and as the churchmen were rather shy of him,
upon the disgrace of their great patron, Clarendon,
he resolved to show some semblance of favour to
the dissenters ; both to soften them, and force the
churchmen back to their usual dependence upon,
and sycophancy towards him.
He vented his anger at the state bishops, in the
council board ; and, on complaints from them, of dis
orders and conventicles, said, and said most truly,
that the established clergy were to blame ; for if they
had lived well, and gone about their parishes, and
taken pains to convince the nonconformists, the na
tion might have been settled; but they thought of
nothing, but to get good benefices, and to keep a
good table. Burnet says, that in a conversation with
Charles, in his closet, he was struck to hear a prince
of his course of life, so much disgusted at the ambi
tion, the covetousness, and scandals of the establish
ed clergy.
The king said, " if the clergy had done their part,
it had been easy to settle the nonconformists; but
they will do nothing, and push me on to do every
thing. I had a chaplain, an honest man, but a great
blockhead, to whom I gave a living in Suffolk, full of
that sort of people ; he went about among them from
house to house, though I cannot imagine what he
could say to them , for he was a very silly fellow ;
but I believe his nonsense suited theirs, for he brought
them all to the church; and in reward of his dili
gence, I have given him a bishopric in Ireland."
If such had been always the grounds on which
Charles made bishops, the Bartholomew, conventicle
and five mile acts, would never have stamped with
indelible infamy the British statute book. And, al
though the royal profligate might deem piety non
sense, and an honest man a blockhead ; it would
have been infinitely better for old England, in all her

comprehension scheme. 199
national, social, domestic, and individual interests, if
her established clergy had lured her people to
church, by the same means, which this conscientious
chaplain, rector* and bishop used ; instead of first
filling the country, with nonconformists, by their own
fraudulent and iniquitous measures ; and then per
secuting by fines, by imprisonment, and by exile;
those whom they had forced into nonconformity.
And it would be infinitely better for old England
now, if her government would manufacture bishops
Out of the same staple, that supplied this Irish pre
late ; instead of promoting men to the episcopate,
for their popish, their pelagian, their formal, their
secular views, opinions, character, and conduct.
As Charles complained so loudly of the unprinci
pled and cruel course of the state bishops, and con
forming clergy generally, who increased the number
of dissenters by their scandalous behaviour ; which
the people could not but contrast with that of the
ejected ministers ; a toleration was proposed by the
more moderate divines of the establishment. But
this was so violently clamoured against by the high
church formalists, that the nonconformists were sub
jected to a renewed, and a still severer persecution.
Bridgman and Wilkins set on foot a treaty for a
comprehension of such dissenters as would commune
with the established church ; and a toleration of the
rest. Chief justice Hale, Tillotson, Stillingfleet and
Burton, concurred. Bates, Manton and Baxter were
called on the side of the presbyterians ; and a pro
ject was prepared, similar to that promised by
Charles, in his declaration, published in 1660, and
so flagrantly falsified by the Bartholomew act. All
the ultras and formalists cried out, that the church
was undermined and betrayed. The more moderate
divines answered, that yielding in lesser and indif
ferent matters, would be no reproach, but an honour
to the church. The Apostles complied with many
Jewish observances,; and the African church offered.

200 PARKER  MARVEL.
much to the Donatists. The progress of popery and
atheism, in England, alarmed all the wise and good ;
and taught them that all which could be done, witb-
out sin, should be done to heal protestant divisions.
A paper war fanned the flames on both sides.'
Ralph Willis, the cobbler of Gloucester, published
an account of the scandalous lives of many of the es
tablished clergy. On the other side, books were
written to expose the presbyterians ; as having false
notions in religion, leading to antinomianism, and a
dissolution of morals, under pretence of being justi
fied by faith only; which, be it remembered, the
eleventh article of the Anglican Church itself, ex
pressly asserts to be, " a most wholesome doctrine."
The three volumes of the " Friendly Debate," were
also levelled at the nonconformists.
But the most virulent champion of state episcopacy
was Parker, made bishop of Oxford* by James ; a
man, described by Burnet as full of satirical vivacity,
of considerable learning, of no judgment, of as little
virtue, and, as to religion, rather impious. *» Indeed, he
did not scruple to declare, publicly, " that it was
more necessary to set a severe government over
men's consciences and religious persuasions, than
over their vices and immoralities. Goodly qualifica
tions these, for a protestant prelate !
Parker's lucubrations were answered by Andrew
Marvel, the liveliest droll of the age, whose wit ef
fected more than all the learning of Dr. Owen's
grave replies. It was written in so entertaining a
manner, that, from the king and his mistresses down
to the lowest orders, " the Rehearsal transposed" was
read with delight; and chagrined and humbled
Parker, and the whole faction of formal, clerical
persecutors. But whatever advantages the friends
of comprehension and toleration might have, on the
side of wisdom, wit, and justice, the high church
men had such influence in a packed house of com
mons, as to induce those inflexible guardians of re-

VENAL PARLIAMENT. 201
ligious and civil liberty, to pass a most extraordi
nary vote, that no bill for such a purpose should be
received in parliament.
The court, says Burnet, delivered itself up to
vice ; and the house of commons lost all respect in
the nation, because they still gave all the money
which Charles asked, to meet the continual expendi
ture of his extravagance and profligacy. When an
inquiry was made into the expenses of the Dutch
war, great part of which money Charles had convert
ed to his own use, the chief men, who promoted this
inquiry, were taken off, the cant phrase then used for
bribery, in which the court made such progress, that
it was thought the king would never part with a par
liament, in which every man's price was known ; for
as any one rose in the house, he raised his price.
In the course of this inquiry, the carelessness,
luxury, and dissipation of the court, were so much
exposed, that Charles was greatly exasperated ; and
lent a willing ear to his sycophants, who magnified
absolute governments, particularly that of France,
and said, how easily he could shake off the restraints
of law; as Denmark passed, in one day, from an
elective to an hereditary and despotic crown.
Charles liked the project well, but was too indolent,
and too dastardly to attempt its immediate execu
tion ; and therefore went on in the common sheep
track of Stuart kingcraft, balancing one party
against another; occasionally doing popular acts, to
get money from his parliament, under pretence of
supporting the triple alliance against France and
popery. , Some members struggled in vain to oppose this
profligate waste of the people's money ; and, among
the rest, sir John Coventry, who proposed laying a
tax on playhouses ; then the sink of all prostitution
and dissoluteness. The court party protested
against such a tax, saying, the players were the
king's servants, and a part of his pleasure. Covent
ry asked, whether the king's pleasure did lie among
26

202 SIR JOHN COVENTRY.
the men, or the women, that acted ? Whereupon,
Charles, in spite of his brother James's remon
strances to the Contrary, sent some of his own guards
to wavlay Coventry, and set the king's mark upon
bim. Sands, Obrian, and others, drew their swords on
him, as he was entering his lodgings; Coventry
seized a flambeau with one hand, and with his sword
in the other, defended himself valiantly against his
numerous assailants. After wounding some of the
guardsmen, he was disarmed by the rest, who slit
his nose open to the bone ; to teach him, they said, to
respect the king. In this state they left him, and went
back 40 the duke of Monmouth's, where Obrian's
arm was dressed.
Such was the condition of civil liberty in England,
under this, precious limb of the Stuart body ; nor
Was religious liberty in a better state, under the au
spices of this supreme secular head of the establish
ed Church. During the great fire, which had con
sumed so large a portion of the city of London, as
during the devastations of the plague, the regular
national clergy had deserted their flocks ; and the
nonconformists administered spiritual consolation to
the suffering and bereaved people. Wherefore, in
1669, when the city was rebuilt, an act was proposed,
reviving the former act against conventicles, with
some additional severities ; namely, that in any case
of doubt, concerning the meaning of any part of the
law, it should be determined in the sense most hostile
to conventicles ; and that every justice should be
heavily fined, if he did not execute the law, upon in
formation given.
Upon this, many justices resigned their commis
sions, rather than be the instruments of such eccle
siastical tyranny. No jury trial was allowed ; but
the nonconformists were exposed to conviction on
the oath of a single informer, who received one-third
of the exorbitant fine. This infernal act was so ri
gorously executed in Starling's mayoralty, that all

LORD SIDMOUTH's BILL. 203
London was in disorder, and many merchants pre
pared to remove to Holland, with their industry and
trading capital. But still the informers were encou
raged, and every where labouring in their regular vo
cation. Among other dissenters, the quakers, or
friends, suffered very severely, and with great firm
ness and resolution, during this protestant episcopal
established church persecution.
The present limits do not allow of tracing the foot-
tracks of persecution, marked by the course of the
Anglican Church, any farther. Her labours, in that
part of her calling, during the remainder of the
reign of Charles the second, and the reigns of James*
of William* of Ann, and of the Brunswick sove
reigns, must be reserved for future notice.
It is, however, necessary to observe, that the
church of England has not yet learned the wisdom,
which flows from the mild and tolerant spirit of
Christianity, notwithstanding the experience of the
iniquity and the evil of persecution, for nearly three
centuries. A very few years since, lord Sidmouth
brought a bill into the house of peers, the effect of
which, had it passed into a law, would have been to
renew the blessings of the Bartholomew, the con
venticle, and the five mile acts. But the English
dissenters, of all denominations, uniting together,
poured in such a flood of petitions against the bill,
as compelled the British government to desist from
their proposed crusade against evangelism.
The reverend doctor Coke, an eminent clergyman
in the Wesleyan connexion, called upon lord Sid
mouth, while this bill was in agitation, and told him,
that if it became a law, its first operation would be
to send four thousand methodist local preachers to
gaol. For these men could not conscientiously de
sist from preaching the Gospel, merely because his
lordship and the established church wished to silence
them ; as two thousand evangelical ministers had
been siletced in the year 1662. But, notwithstand
ing this plain and intelligible declaration, the saga-

204 STATE CHURCHES.
cious statesman persisted in bringing his project of
persecution before the house of lords.
In the year 1811, was made this notable effort to
break up the toleration act, and destroy religious
liberty in England; by imposing new and intolera
ble restrictions upon the dissenters. The noble
viscount's eloquence was employed in describing the
nonconforming preachers, as," blacksmiths, cobblers,
tailors, pedlers, chimneysweepers, and what not."
This eloquence was backed by the pious efforts of
the formal, high church bishops, who were, how
ever, frightened by, what the primate of Canterbury
called " the flood of petitions, which deluged the
table of the house of lords." The lay peers of En
gland did their duty on that day; and by their
speeches and votes, in favour of universal religious
freedom, not only defeated the noble doctor's at
tempt to poison piety in the phial of persecution ;
but, actually, obtained an enlargement of the privi
leges qf protestant dissenters.
The immediate operation of lord Sidmouth's bill,
if enacted into a law, would have been to crowd the
gaols of England with four thousand methodist
preachers, and a still greater number of independ
ent, or congregational, clergy; for the crime of
preaching the pure Gospel. Leaving at large So
cinians, formalists, deists, and atheists, to edify a
Christian community. But the event of this flagi
tious effort proved, that the ecclesiastical tyranny of
the seventeenth, cannot be revived in the nineteenth
century. England seems never to have been able to divest
herself of the notion of the necessity of a national, or
state church, which must absorb all religion in its
own established gulf; and to whose dominion all
must bend. During the reign of the Tudors, parti
cularly of Elizabeth, the English government made
a wide difference in its treatment of those, who were
attached to a particul; r form of church* order, at
home, or abroad. Thus, in England, nonepisco-

ENGLISH INFIDELITY, 205
palians were fined, imprisoned, pilloried, banished,
butchered, at the same time that aid was afforded to
the Huguenots in France, and to the Dutch insur
gents against Spain.
In justice to the Stuarts, it must be acknowledged
that not one of them ever aided a foreign protestant;
they were all too much occupied in persecuting En
glish and Scottish protestants at home. And when
the presbyterians gained the ascendancy, during the
latter part of the reign of Charles, and during the
protectorate of Cromwell, they endeavoured to force
all England into a presbyterian state church ; while
they were disposed to be kindly towards the congre-
gationalists of New-England.*" At all times, how
ever, under a national church, whether episcopal
ian, or presbyterian, or independent, the established
clergy, when they fail to convince others by the
force of their oral or written arguments* are very
desirous of calling in to their aid, those two great
doctors in theology, those resident graduates of the
scourge and of the gallows ; the beadle and the
hangman. If a national church establishment be necessary
to promote piety, and prevent heathenism in a coun
try ; how is it, that during the full influence of the
English church establishment, from its restoration,
under Charles the second, to the middle of the reign
of George the second, infidelity was so much diffused
in England ; and that its progress was never effect
ually checked, until after the revivals of religion by
Whitfield and Wesley, and their followers; which
revivals, the Anglican national church establishment
have always laboured, and do now labour, to the ex
treme extent of their power, to oppose and to de
stroy ?
Mr. Southey himself, a very strenuous and a very
able advocate for the established church of En
gland, admits, in his life of John Wesley, that the
constitution of that clerical establishment has a na
tural tendency to produce irreligious, formal minis-

206 pHURCH TENDENCIES.
ters ; who are precisely the sort of clergy best cal
culated to promote infidelity among the laity, by di
vesting Christianity of all its spiritual attractions and
principles. The Anglican Church offers an easy,
respectable provision for the younger sons of the
nobility and gentry, who take up the clerical, as they
would any secular calling ; and being settled upon
family livings, inflict deep and deadly wounds upon
the character of the establishment ; and offer griev
ous violence to the religious feelings of the nation.
Their inability, or disinclination for the sacred of
fice, into which they are thrust for a morsel of bread,
is a fearful thing for themselves, and a horrible ca
lamity for the people 'committed to their unfaithful
charge. Nay, even when the motives for entering
the established church are not thus palpably gross,
the choice is far more frequently made, from motives
of convenience and worldly circumstances, than
from a deliberate and conscientious determination of
the will and judgment.
Influence in an endowed school, or a prospect of
promotion at college, destines boys for holy orders ;
with little reference to their talents and disposition ;
nay, sometimes, because' they are thought too dull and
incompetent for any other vocation. And when no
unfitness exists, the destination is usually regarded
with ominous indifference; as if it might be entered
upon with as little forethought and feeling, as any
secular profession or branch of trade ; as if all the
heart, and all the soul, and all the strength of man,
were not required for the due performance of its
duties; and a minister of the Gospel were responsi
ble for nothing more than what the rubric enjoins.
In addition to the deadly formalism of the En
glish state clergy, a speculative infidelity was import
ed from France, where it originated in a corrupt es
tablished, or national, church, and a most infamously
licentious literature. In this school some of the
leading statesmen of Charles the second, together
with their royal master, had been trained. Of course

NOMINAL CHRISTIANITY. 207
the people of England, generally, were not instructed
in the pure principles of evangelical faith; and
knew little, if .any thing,' more of religion than its
exterior forms. They had been papists ; were then
protestants ; but never had been Christians.
The reformation had taken away some of the out
ward ceremonies, to which they were attached, and
substituted nothing in their stead. To the mass of
the people, the Bible was a sealed book ; because
the system of .general education, desired by the fa
rthers of the Anglican Church, and intended by Edr
ward the sixth, had never been provided. Never
theless, the Reformation produced great national
blessings. It delivered England from spiritual bond
age; it set her intellect free; it rid her of the gross
idolatry, and abominable impostures of the popish
church, and of those infamous practices, which sti
fle religion, and corrupt national morals.
Yet too little care was taken to teach the educated
classes the principles of pure religion; and the
greater part of the nation were altogether uneducat
ed. Christians, only by the mere ceremony of bap- m
tism ; and being in a state of heathen, or worse than
heathen, ignorance. In truth, they never had been
converted ; at first, one idolatry was substituted for
another; and, when the popish idolatry was expell
ed, the people became only nominal Christians ; they
were left as ignorant of real Christianity, as they
were found, in succession, by popery and by pro
testantism. With the rise and progress of formalism in the es
tablished church of England, has been intimately
connected the growth of infidelity, and immorality in
that country. Much detail on this subject is not ne
cessary; it will be sufficient to refer generally to
writers of various religious denominations, and to
state a few particulars, showing the prevalence of
formalism and infidelity in England, from the time of ^
Charles the second, to the present hour. ,

208 SAMUEL SHAW.
Bishop Burnet's " History of his own time," af
fords an ample view of the formalism and irreligion
of the Anglican Church establishment! under the Stu
art dynasty ; together with her horrible persecutions •
of all those, who dissented from her, whether in doc
trine or in discipline. Indeed, her bloody cruelty
was more fiercely directed against the dissidents in
church government, than against those who differed
from her in religious opinions. The puritans did not
separate from the English church, on account of her
doctrines, for in them, they agreed with her ; but on
account of the burdensome ceremonies, and popish
superstitions imposed by her; and above all, by the
abominable book of sports, so foolishly promulgated
by James and Charles ; and so mercilessly enforced
by Laud.
The reader may form some notion of the state of
religion and morals in England, in those awful times,
under the full and triumphant auspices of the esta
blished church, by a single fact ; showing the ex
tremities and devices, to which pious persons were
^driven, in order to worship God, by stealth; while
every species of infidelity and profligacy were openly
encouraged throughout the whole country.
The reverend Samuel Shaw was ejected from his
living, in 1661, about a year before the Bartholomew
act was published ; he being an incumbent, substitut
ed by parliament for a sequestered episcopal clerk ;
and therefore, on the restoration of Charles, cast out
by law^ as one whose title was originally void, be
cause illegal. A gentleman says, in reference to this
ousted clergyman, " I have known him spend many
days, and nights too, in religious exercises, when the
times were so dangerous, that it would hazard an
* imprisonment, for a person, not to be drunk, or in a
bawdy-house, or tavern ; but to be worshipping God,
with five or six people, like minded with himself. I
have been sometimes in Mr. Shaw's company, for a
whole night together, when we have been obliged to

BOOKS RECOMMENDED. 209
steal to the place in the dark, stop out the light, and
stop in the voice, by clothing, and fast closing the
windows, till the first daybreak down a chimney has
warned us to be gone. I bless God for such seasons.
If some say, it was needless to do so much ;. I reply,
the life of our souls, and eternity, which only was
minded there, required more."
A careful perusal of the following works will en
able the reader to trace the progress of formalism,
and irreligion, in the church establishment and peo
ple of England, from the time, more especially, of
Charles the second, to the revival of rehgion* in the
reign of George the second ; and from that revival
to the present period, when its evangelical clergy,
still a small and unprotected band, are endeavouring,
in spite of the frowns, and persecution of thesecular
government, the hierarchy, and ecclesiastical digni
taries, generally, to restore that august, and venerable
church, to the purity of Scriptural doctrine, esta
blished by her first reformers, and by them embodied
into her articles, homilies, and liturgy.
On the dissenting, side* the account may be traced^
from the Reformation to the year 1808* in Neale's his
tory of the puritans ; Calamy's Nonconformist's Me
morial ; and Bogue and Bennet's history of dissent
ers. To which add Brooks' Lives of the puritans,
and Wilson's history of dissenting churches, contain
ing an appendix on the origin, progress, and present
state of Christianity, in Britain. On, the church side,
may be consulted Middleton's Evangelical Biogra
phy ; and Grant's Summary of the history of the
English Church. -jj
Bishop Stillingfleet, in the epistle dedicatoj|SJand
preface to his Origenas Sacrae* written in the year
1662, two years after the restoration of Charles, and
in the same year when the bloody Bartholomew act
was got up by Sheldon, and his brother prelates,
complains of the general prevalence of infidelity,
atheism and immorality in England.
27

210 PROFLIGATE COURT. ' f
In the preface of Dr. Owen's incomparable expo
sition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, this subject is
examined at greater length. In stating the reasons
why Dr. Owen felt himself called upon to enforce
the duty of remembering the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy, it is said, that the personal profligacy of Charles
had created a most profligate court ; and too many
of the people followed this pernicious, and perilous
example. An immoral man never wishes to contem
plate the consequences of his conduct. He hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should m
be reproved. The light of heaven, then, must not,
by any means, disturb the king's dream of voluptuous
delight. Pure and undefiled religion is banished from
the palace. Prophesy not again any more at Bethel ;
for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.
But though the unwelcome voice of pure religion
may be heard no more at all in it ; yet the recollec
tions of religion may still haunt the mind. Fear
must, therefore, if possible, be excluded, as well as
grace and truth. To accomplish this, intoxicating
pleasures are multiplied. The moral necessities of
the court call loudly for carousals, and for masque
rades, for buffoons, and for players, for dramatic and
burlesque writers ; that these, all labouring accord
ing to their several vocations, may preoccupy every
hour, and depress every rising thought of religion.
Accordingly, religious men were systematically ridi
culed by this supreme head of the established church,
and by his courtiers and prostitutes, then the author
ized channels of church patronage. A profession
of religion was assumed to be a full proof of hypo
crisy ; and gravity, and sound speech, which cannot
Abe condemned, were deemed fit subjects for perpe
tual laughter. Amidst " mimicked statesmen, and
their merry king," the just and upright man is laugh
ed to scorn.
But, as the hand writing appeared on the wall,
while Belshazzar, despising the God of Israel, was

INFIDELITY. 211
drinking wine before his thousand lords, and prais
ing the gods of gold, and of silver, and" of brass ;
so, in the midst of all this profane mirth, the heart of
the king may soon be made sad ; for the anticipa
tions of futurity may intrude ; and they always damp
and darken unprincipled gayety. Moreover, in the
throngest succession of dissipation, there are hours
when a man is thrown back upon himself, and must
think. Now, for these dark hours in the lives of profligate
j* men, whether monarchs or subjects, whether clerks
or Jaics, infidelity engages to make provision ; and
tries to substantiate its claims to regard. To attend
to a train of reasoning, more mental exertion is re
quisite than profligate men are willing to bestow on
the subject of religion. But doubt may be express
ed in a few words ; objections, misrepresentations,
and ludicrous allusions, may be soon made, and are
easily remembered. Accordingly, though they could
never disprove any one of the evidences of Chris
tianity, they could boldly affirm, that the whole of
this evidence was doubtful, at best ; that the Chris
tian doctrines were contradictory and incredible;
and that the morality of Scripture was rigid, and in
applicable to the condition of man.
And in proportion as any one possessed the mind
which was in Christ Jesus, though they had no evil
thing to say of him, they could endeavour to hold
him up to scorn, under the reviling epithets of illi
beral, or morose, or visionary, or hypocritical, or en
thusiastic, or fanatical. They who talked thus, and
they who listened, were equally willing to support
these assertions ; their proof was not required. ffWit
and raillery supplied the place both of principle and
argument; and wealth, festivity, and increasing*
numbers gave spirit to their infidel exertions.
To the patrons of such sentiments, the weekly re
currence of the Lord's day was peculiarly unwelcome.
This sacred day has ever been ah eminent instru
ment in propagating Christian truth, and in forming;

212 SABBATH PROFANATION.
Christian character. Of this the puritans had been
fully aware; they had enforced the doctrines of
Scripture on this subject, and, under their potent
ministrations, a serious impression of the importance
of sanctifying the Sabbath, had been widely diffused.
The profanation of this holy day had been systema
tically encouraged by Elizabeth, and James, and
Charles, and their state bishops, and established
clergy ; doubtless, another proof of the necessity of
a church establishment, to promote piety, and pre
vent heathenism.
Of the religious effects which followed the strict
observance of this blessed day, profane and infidel
men were also aware. And they were anxious to
counteract its influence ; not merely because they
were unwilling to worship God themselves, but also,
because they hoped to supplant religious principle,
by introducing a neglect of religious ordinances. A
serious regard to the duties of private worship, was
now considered as beneath the character of a man of
rank ; and a contempt of every public appearance of
devotion, was a distinguishing mark of the king's
own peculiar friends and favourites; the dispens
ers vof bishoprics and benefices in the established
church. When Charles himself was in the house of God, he
seemed to be afraid, lest it should not be sufficiently
known that he neither feared God, nor regarded
man. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord, that /
should obey his voice ? The king's example was
followed by the minions of his pleasures ; and the
conduct of the court, however infamous, will always
be followed by multitudes of the people. Religious
men, in every age, have seen cause to lament, that
so many neglect the duties of the Sabbath ; but at
this period, when the Anglican Church establishment
was in possession of plenary power, and employing
that power in persecuting every appearance of piety,
the profanation of the Lord's day was open, avowed,
audacious, universal. The torrent of infidelity, which

CHURCH FORMALISM. 213
descended from the throne of Charles, and from the
archiepiscopate of Sheldon, was swollen in its pro
gress through the different gradations of society, and
deluged all the land. O my people, they who lead
thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy
paths. The attention of Dr. Owen had been often directed
with grief to this declining state of religion in England ;
and he tells us, that to the introduction of a great
neglect of the duties of the Sabbath might be as-
i cribed much of the profaneness and impiety which
had become so general. While studying the fourth
chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, he carefully
examined the Scripture doctrine respecting the
Lord's day. The result of this examination is con
tained in six exercitations, concerning the name, the
origin, the nature, the use, and the continuance of a
day of sacred rest ; and practical directions for the
due observance of this day, are subjoined. They
were published in 1671, in a detached form, that
they might be read more extensively, and with
out delay. They are now published in the Edin
burgh edition, in 1812, of Owen's Exposition of
Hebrews. As might naturally be expected from a formal state
church, supported by an infidel, secular government,
Charles the second and his established bishops filled
Scotland with the blood of her holiest men ; covered
England with profaneness and profligacy, and laid
the axe to the root of all evangelical religion in the
national church establishment ; and laboured to en
tail a perpetuity of formalism and ungodlinessjupon
the clergy of the church of England. Pains, penal
ties, confiscations, imprisonments, tortures, were all ,
put in requisition by this atrocious government of
church and state, to prevent the ejected ministers
from exercising their most holy functions in a land
calling itself Christian.
All vital and experimental religion was decried,
ridiculed, calumniated, persecuted ; and, so far as
the king and his state bishops could effect their pur-

214 FASHIONABLE THEOLOGY.
pose, England approximated to the condition of the
cities of the plain.
In vain did Burnet's philosophical divines in the es
tablished church, labour to stem the torrent of infi
delity and licentiousness, by studying, and recom
mending the study of Plato, Tully, and Plotin. Was
this the way to promote an intimate knowledge of
the Scriptures, and an extensive diffusion of Gospel
truth? These men, highly talented, and extensively
learned as they undoubtedly were, instead of insist
ing upon the necessity of the Holy Spirit's influence,
to enable us to know the things of God ; urged the
sufficiency of mere, unassisted human reason, which,
of itself, never did and never can either know, or de
sire to know and love God. They treated the opera
tions of grace upon the renewed heart as cant, and
enthusiasm ; or, at least, as so inscrutably secret, as
to be entirely unknown. But in what does an un
known operation in heart and life, differ from no
operation at all ?
It is to be apprehended, that from this philosophic
al source, much of our modern, fashionable, formal
divinity is derived ; a system of divinity which boasts
of reason for its author, and leads to a listless, unde-
Vout, unspintual life and practice, as its legitimate
end and object. In the eighth volume of the late
Joseph Milner's works, in "Gibbon's account of
Christianity considered," this subject is well discuss
ed. The whole tract may be very profitably perus
ed ; especially the address to sceptics, formalists,
and believers.
What with unscriptural preaching, and encouraged
licentiousness, in the reign of Charles the second,
religion received a wound in England, which she
has not yet recovered. In the established church, the
very semblance of piety almost entirely disappear
ed ; family religion was very generally laid aside ;
and great numbers, particularly of the higher ranks,
avowed themselves open infidels.
On the accession of James the second, his foolish
violence in favour of popery, drove the churchmen

HIGH AND LOW CHURCH. 215
and the dissenters into a temporary political alliance,
in support of protestantism. And as soon as the dan
ger was over, the state church requited the aid of the
dissenters, by refusing to repeal the test and corpora
tion acts, which were, originally, passed with the con
currence of dissenters, as a safeguard against pope
ry, and, certainly, not intended as a perpetual exclu
sion of conscientious protestants from civil and mili
tary offices.
At the revolution, in 1688, the toleration act of
William protected the dissenters from the tender
mercies of the established church; as expressed in
the intelligible tones of the five mile and conventi
cle acts, of fine, imprisonment, transportation, and
death. A reunion of churchmen and dissenters was
earnestly endeavoured by William, but frustrated by
the state clergy. Indeed, such a desirable event
was rendered quite hopeless, not only by a fierce
renewal of the dispute about forms of church go
vernment, between episcopacy and presbyterianism;
but also, by the prevalence of formalism in the es
tablishment, and the very general departure of its
clergy from the evangelical doctrines of the articles
of the Anglican Church.
In addition to which, the revolution gave birth to
another source of quarrel between the state clergy
themselves ; namely, the distinction between high
and bw church ; in which religion had little or no
share ; and which produced a large crop of political
and ecclesiastical controversy; and taught multi
tudes in the establishment to substitute churchmanshijjfii
for Christianity ; a doctrine, in which a great body^
of bishops, priests and deacons, both in England
and in these United States, are, at this hour, full gra
duates. The toleration act, indeed, secures the dissenters
in England, from the grosser, and more overt acts of
persecution ; but they still labour under the pro-
scriptionof political disabilities. And notwithstand
ing the tolerant and liberal character of William's

216 DOCTRINES OF GRACE.

to

government ; and the labours of archbishops Til
lotson and Sharpe, and other able and well disposed
men, evangelical religion declined, and formalism
flourished, in England, almost entirely without let or
hindrance, down to the year 1738. The established
clergy, if they believed, certainly did not preach the
great leading truths of the Gospel, as they are taught
in Holy Writ, and expressly embodied in their own
articles, homilies and liturgy ; for example, the es
sential doctrines of original sin; justification of the
sinner by faith alone in the merits of Christ ; spirit
ual, not baptismal regeneration; communion with
the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ ; the pro
gressive sanctification of the Holy Spirit ; the as
surance of the favour of God ; and all those essen
tial truths, known as the doctrines of grace.
The state clergy continued preaching, living, and
acting against, and subscribing, swearing to, and
reading the doctrines of the Anglican Church.
Evangelism sounded from the desk, and formalism
from the pulpit, very generally, throughout the esta
blishment; until about the year 1740, it pleased God
to cause a revival of religion in England, by the in
strumentality of John Wesley, and George Whit
field, and their coadjutors and followers.
At that time, says Erasmus Middleton, a minister of
the church of England, who ventured to maintain
her articles and homilies in doctrine, and who sup
ported them in fact, by a holy practice, was a kind of
prodigy, and met with nothing but censure, persecu
tion, and hard names from all ranks and sorts of men.
Our pulpits resounded with morality, deduced from
the principles of nature, and the fitness of things,
with no relation to Christ, or the Holy Ghost ; all
which the heathen philosophers have insisted on,
and perhaps with more than modern ingenuity ; and,
in consequence of this, our streets have resounded with
immorality. Dark, in very deed, and gloomy, was the condi
tion of England, atjbe commencement of this revival.

REVIVAL IN ENGLAND. 217
Serious and practical Christianity was at its lowest
ebb ; vital religion, so flourishing at, and subse
quent to the Reformation, until stifled by the esta
blished church, under Laud and Sheldon, was
scarcely known. The only thing insisted upon,
seemed to be a defence of the outworks of Christian
ity, against the incessant attacks of avowed infidels.
And itwhat was the consequence? The writings of
irifidels multiplied daily, and infidelity spread rapid
ly among persons of every rank, not because they
were reasoned into it, by force of argument ; but be
cause the state clergy held them in entire ignorance
of Christ, and of the power of the Gospel.
Hear bishop Butler, a man by no means likely to
exaggerate the actual state of things : he says, in the
preface to his immortal work on " The Analogy of
Religion, natural and revealed, to the constitution
and course of nature," written in May, 1736, — "it is
come, / know not how, to be taken for granted, that
Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry;
but that it is now, at length, discovered to be ficti
tious ; and, accordingly, they treat it as if, in the pre
sent age, this was an agreed point among all people
of discernment ; and nothing remained but to set it
up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule ; as
it were, by way of reprisals for its having so long in
terrupted the pleasures of the World."
In proportion as Whitfield's popularity increased,
did his clerical brethren in the establishment op
pose and vilify him. Some of them told him that he
should not preach again in their pulpits, unless he|
renounced that part of the preface to his sermon on
regeneration, wherein he wished " that his brethren
would entertain their auditors oftener with discourses
upon the new birth." The state clergy were also
exceedingly angry at his free conversation with seri
ous dissenters, who often invited him to their houses ;
and repeatedly told him, that if the doctrines of the
new birth and of justification by faith, were preached
28

218 ENGLISH STATE CLERGY.
powerfully in the established church, there would
be few dissenters in England.
It cannot be too often repeated, nor too deeply
considered, by those who wish well to the real, the
best interests of religion, and of the protestant epis
copal church ; that, from the time Laud carried the
English establishment over from its original Augus-
tinism, or Calvinism, into ostensible Arminianism, but
into real formalism, down to the revival of religion,
in the reign of George the second ; the established
church of England languished, and other denomina
tions multiplied upon her decline ; and infidelity, also,
gained ground rapidly, and spread widely through
out the whole nation.
The Anglican Church clergy, it must be acknow
ledged, have, as a body, since the Reformation, main
tained a high character for talent and learning ; and
have written ably and well, upon every subject con
nected with theology ; from expounding and defend
ing the internal, the essential truths of Revelation,
down to the mere exterior of the visible church.
And, above all, some eminently pious, evangelical
men have been found within her venerable pale, in
all ages. God has never been left entirely without
witnesses in her, notwithstanding her secular state
establishment. She has always had some children,
who have not bowed the knee to Baal. But, gene
rally speaking, the leprosy of formalism pervaded and
poisoned the living waters of that church, in their
springs, and in their fountains; from the era of
Laud's apostacy and persecution, until nearly the
middle of the eighteenth century.
Since that period the evangelical doctrines of the
Anglican Church, have been faithfully promulgated
by an increasing number of her clergy ; notwithstand
ing the virulent opposition of their formal brethren,
in the shape of misrepresentation and calumny; and
the more substantial arguments of her formal bi
shops, in silencing curates, and refusing to counter-

BOLINGBROKE — CALVIN. 219
sign the testimonials of presentees, that have been
found guilty of preaching the Gospel, and enforcing
the doctrines of grace ; the doctrines of the Reform
ation ; the doctrines of the Anglican articles and ho
milies. The notorious infidel, Bolingbroke, was reading
Calvin's Institutes, when Mr. Church, an established
clergyman called upon him. " You have caught me,"
said the political patron of the English establish
ment, " reading John-Calvin; he was, indeed, a man
of great parts, profound sense, and vast learning ;
he handles the doctrines of grace in a very masterly
manner." " Doctrines of grace !" exclaimed the
learned clerk, " the doctrines of grace have set all
mankind together by the ears." " I am surprised to
hear you say so," answered the peer, "you, who pro
fess to believe and to preach Christianity. Those
doctrines are certainly the doctrines of the Bible,
and if I believe the Bible, I must believe them. And
let me seriously tell you, that the greatest miracle in
the world, is the subsistence of Christianity, and its
continued preservation as a religion, when the
preaching of it is committed to the care of such un-
christian wretches as you."
At the time of the revival of religion in England,
towards the middle of the eighteenth century, the
state clergy, pretty generally, conformed to the
world, in the spirit of the world ; following its trifling
pleasures, or immersed in its secular pursuits. It
was quite enough for them to " do ministerial duty,"
as the phrase is, on a Sunday ; without attempting to
improve their own minds by study, or to promote the
spiritual interests of the flocks they fleeced. They
were easy companions for easy men, who gave them
selves no trouble about their own souls, or about
God, or any thing else, but taking their pastime in
this present world.
Give such men the pleasures of the earth for a
season ; and the honour of Christ, and the salvation
of sinners are subordinate matters, which may be

220 BISHOP TRELAWNEY.
attended to al any, or at no time, as the case may be.
It was a great matter for an established clerk to
emerge from the low debauchery of the times ; to
abstain from gross swearing, unless in suitable com
pany; and to sleep off a drunken frolic, with all due
decorum. Is it to promote piety, and prevent hea
thenism, that a national church establishment nou
rishes within her bosom, swearing, drinking, hunting,
horseracing, gambling, ungodly priests ?
An unlucky servant spilled some soup upon the
laced waistcoat of Sir Jonathan Trelawney, who re
turned the compliment, by pouring out a volley, of
oaths upon the culprit. Observing one of the com
pany stare, he smiled, and said — " I do not swear, as
the bishop of  , but only as sir Jonathan Tre
lawney." " Pray, my lord," replied the gentleman,
" if the baronet goes to hell, what is to become of the
bishop ?"
But where such gross conduct and open profane
ness were avoided, what good did the formal preach
ing of the state clergy effect ? Mere morality, de
rived from man's own unassisted strength, neither
comes from, nor goes to, the heart. With the whole
amount of human efforts, and human attainments, all
fallen, corrupt, depraved, feeble, no immortal soul can
be satisfied or saved. It was preaching Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified, that brought men out from the
darkness and death of popery at the Reformation.
And it is the only preaching that can, at any time,
awaken sinners to a true sense of their eternal inte
rests. It is this preaching which has drawn, and still
continues to draw, thousands from the English esta
blished church to the worship and communion of the
dissenters ; and it is this preaching alone, that can
ever again build up the establishment in strength.
Intermediate the complaints of bishop Stillingfleet,
Dr. Owen and bishop Butler, in the years 1662,
1671 and 1736, respecting the infidelity and profli
gacy of England, we have similar lamentations from
rhe archbishop of Canterbury and thirteen bishops,

EPISCOPAL DECLARATION. 221
in their Declaration against the Rebellion, published
in the year 1715.
These prelates affirm, that the chief hopes of the
enemy to succeed in the excited rebellion, arose
from discontents, fomented by those, who, too much
valued by themselves and others for their pretended
zeal for the Anglican Church, had joined with papists
in their nefarious schemes. That members of the
established church of England, amidst high pro
fessions of zeal for her interests, and fierce denun
ciations against all nonepiscopalians, and dissenters,
should attempt to set up a popish pretender for the
support of that church, is declared to be such an ab
surdity, as nothing but an infatuation from God, in
flicted for their sins, could suffer to pass upon the
nation. The infidelity, hypocrisy, contention and hatred,
charged by this episcopal declaration upon England,
are confirmed by every contemporary publication,
which characterizes that period. The gall and bit
terness, with which the high church tories, during
the reigns of William and Ann, had , laboured to
poison all social intercourse, and to stifle all religious
liberty, had, in the natural order of things, produced
a general indifference, and infidelity. The infidel
writers were so numerous, and so successful in pro
selyting the higher classes of the community, that
many well-meaning persons foreboded the speedy
extinction of Revelation in England. And some
years afterwards, bishop Butler told his clergy, in a
diocesan charge, that " the influence of religion is
more and more wearing out of the minds of men ; the
number of those, who avow themselves unbeliev
ers, increase, and with their numbers, their zeal.
The deplorable distinction of our age, is an avowed
scorn of religion in some, and a growing disregard to
it in the generality."
And no wonder ; seeing that the strain Of preach
ing in the English church establishment had been,

222 CHURCH EVANGELICALS.
for a long time, almost entirely formal. It was,
indeed, less bigoted, and less popish, than the ser
monizing so much in fashion during the last years of
Ann; for the people of England were sick, to the
loathing, of exclusive churchmanship, and the indis
pensable necessity of episcopal baptism to eternal
salvation. But a cold, heartless, ethical strain, ex
cluding the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, charac
terized the discourses of the state clergy. Of this
style of preaching bishop Butler's own sermons are
a finished specimen; and helped to promote that
very infidelity, which he so pathetically lamented.
The only counterbalance to this awful state of
things was, the new spirit excited among some of
the state clergy ; a spirit which the secular and ec
clesiastical rulers of the Anglican Church have al
ways laboured, and are now labouring, to suppress
and to extinguish. These evangelical clergy are
persecuted, because they think that the marks of a
true churchman are rather to be found in a vital be
lief of the truly Scriptural doctrines of the Angli
can Church ; than in proclaiming, that eternal life is
exclusively confined to those who profess an out
ward conformity to the rites, and ceremo0ies, and
discipline, and government of that church.
They are reproached as intruders, who disturb
the formal, sepulchral peace of the establishment,
which had been uninterrupted from Bartholomew
day, till the rise of Whitfield and Wesley, and their
associates. But taking their stand upon the Bible,
and the liturgy, articles and homilies of the Angli
can Church, these evangelicals have, as yet, with
stood all the efforts of the formalists to extinguish
them ; and have hitherto gradually, though slowly,
increased in number. How far they will be able to
surmount the new, and more systematic, and better
concerted schemes for their destruction, now put
ting in operation by the secular government, and the
established hierarchy of England, the event alone
can determine.

CHURCH DESPOTISM. 223
The serious part of the English people, even;
among the dissenters, who are hostile to all church
and state establishments, but who love their country,
and know that her wellbeing essentially depends
upon the diffusion of evangelical religion throughout
the community, rejoice to find the Gospel faithfully
proclaimed in those pulpits, from which it had been
almost entirely banished, ever since the ejection of
the nonconformists.
But it is doubtful, if those pulpits will not be again
restored to the death-sleep of formalism ; seeing that
by a clause in an act of parliament, ostensibly pass
ed for another purpose, the constitution of the church
of England has been erected into an absolute des
potism ; and all the unbeneficed clergy in the esta
blishment are subjected to the arbitrary, unrespon
sible dominion of the bishops.
Under such circumstances we cannot marvel, that
evangelism makes but slow progress in the Anglican
Church. So lately as the year 1795, John Newton
wrote thus, " the times are dark, but, perhaps, they
were darker in England sixty years ago, (1735,)
when, though we had peace and plenty, the bulk of
the kingdom lay under the judgment of an unregenerate
ministry, and the people were perishing for lack of
knowledge. In this respect trie times are better
than they were. The Gospel is preached in many-
parts ; we have it plentifully in London ; and many
of our great towns, which were once sitting in dark
ness, have now the true light. Some of these places
were as a wilderness in my remembrance ; and now
they are as gardens of the Lord. And every year
the Gospel is plarited in new places ; ministers are
still rising up, the work is still spreading. I am not
sure, that in the year 1740, there was a single paro
chial minister, who was publicly known as a Gospel
minister, in the whole kingdom. Now we have, I
think, not less than four hundred"
In another letter, written in 1801, Mr. Newton
speaks of the state of religion in the church esta*

224 SCOTTISH EPISCOPACY.
blishment, at the commencement of the present cen
tury ; " I am told there are ten thousand parishes in
England ; I believe more than nine thousand of these
are destitute of the Gospel." Thus, according to
the calculations of this eminently pious man, not a
tenth part of the established church could hear the
Gospel preached within its walls, only twenty years
since; and the number of her evangelical clergy, at
that period, did not amount to one half of those dri
ven out on the 24th of August, 1 662. Such are the
blessings of a formal, secular church establishment !
In his correspondence with a friend in Scotland,
including a period from 1778 to 1784, Mr. Newton
enters more into detail upon this important subject.
In the year 1 778, his friend wrote to him, saying, " as
to the aversion to episcopacy, common among reli
gious people here, especially seceders, I cannot say
but they often carry it too far. But let it be consi
dered what sort of an episcopacy the Scots got a
taste of in the last century. How much blood was
shed ; what dreadful tyranny was used to introduce
and establish it; what profligate lives did both the
bishops and lower clergy lead, and how bloody were
they! " With pleasure, I except my favourite Leighton,
who never could enter into the views of his bre
thren. He bore with them, prayed for them, and, at
length, left them. The west of Scotland is stored
with marks of prelatic vengeance. I know many
good and worthy men in the church of England ab
hor these cruelties as much as we can do ; but it is
hard to bring the common people here to think so.
The account of our trading people, when they re
turn from England, helps to keep up the aversion.
They bring down but sorry enough accounts of the
lower order of the clergy there. Now, to hear of
a drunken clergyman, or one accustomed to swearing,
appears, as it really is, a terrible thing, *o our people.
Though many of our corrupt clergy here, are
very far from adorning the Gospel by their walk

JURANTS  NONJURANTS. 225
and practice, yet they generally preserve outward
decency. " The episcopals still among us, are far from en
dearing the scheme or party to us. We have some
meetings of them in our trading towrts. They are
divided into jurants, and nonjurants. The jurants
qualify to the government, and are on the same foot
ing with episcopals in England. The nonjurants,
who will not qualify, are avowed friends to the wick
ed old cause of the pretender. They are rank Ar
minians, if not Socinians. They have little learning,
and less holiness. Providence seems to be working
ruin to their scheme very fast."
This, it must be confessed, is a somewhat scurvy
picture of Scottish episcopacy, drawn by the hand
of a Scottish seceder; and it is but just to present a
more favourable portrait of the same subject, by an
English churchman.
Mr! Middleton, in his Decades, from 1780 to 1790,
says : the nonjuring bishops of Scotland, to whom
Dr. Seabury, of America, had recourse, were them
selves objects qf sympathy to all those, who, dispos
ed to grant that a form of church government was
not laid down, in so many words, in holy writ, yet
Could not allow that men, under any circumstances,
were justified in departing from tne primitive and
apostolic model. With respect* therefore, to North ,
Britain, though presbyterianism was there established,
they did not regard the Scottish episcopalians as dis
senters ; but rather, as that peculiar body, which, in
fact, constituted the church, stripped of its former ap
pendages of rank^and emolument.
In consequence of the proceedings of the conven
tion of estates, which conveyed the crown to Wil
liam and Mary, and of the subsequent act of the
Scottish parliament, which substituted presbytery for
episcopacy, two archbishops and twelve bishops,
with nine hundred clergymen, refusing to submit to
the new government,' were ejected from their sees
and benefices. Notwithstanding some severe penal
29

226 THEIR REUNION.
laws passed against them, a state church being al
ways prone to inflict penalties upon dissidents* the
episcopal clergy continued to officiate privately to
such as inclined to attend upon their ministrations;
while the bishops preserved the succession of their
order by new and regular consecrations.
In the course of years, their number considerably
diminished; but, as ecclesiastics, they conducted
themselves in a praiseworthy manner, performing
their functions in private apartments, subsisting on
the miserable pittance furnished by their people, and
generally abstaining from interference in political
disputes. They did not pray for the king of England
by name, but they held no connexion with the exiled
royal family ; though, as an affair of conscience, they
admitted the claim of the Stuarts, and called the
pretender, prince Charles. The death of the last
Stuart claimant to the British throne, in 1788, ena
bled them to pray for George the third in their reli
gious meetings. Their tender of loyalty was Well
received ; and hopes were given from some of the
state officers, that the penal enactments would be
removed. Accordingly, three of the bishops, Skinner, Drum
mond, and Strachan, went to London in April, 1789,
to obtain relief. A bill passed the house of com
mons unanimously in their favour, secretary Dundas
being their advocate ; but it was lost in the house of
lords, by the opposition of chancellor Thurlow.
Upon this, the reverend Dr. Gaskin, secretary to the
society for promoting Christian knowledge ; Mr. Ste
vens, treasurer of queen Ann's bounty, and Mr. (now
judge) Park, formed themselves into a committee of
management ; and, in consequence of their efforts,
supported by the Anglican episcopate, especially
bishops Home and Horsley, the bill for relief passed
into a law, June 11th, 1792.
The next attempt was to promote ecclesiastical
unity, which had been much violated. Laymen,
fearing to incur penalties by attending the nonjuring

CHURCH ORDER. 227
clergy, had frequented chapels, served by ministers
ordained in the English and Irish churches, which
did not acknowledge the Scottish bishops. In this
predicament, their places of worship wqre unconse-
crated, and their children unconfirmed ; while their
character was anomalous, and virtually schismatical.
The bishops addressed a public exhortation to the
English and Irish clergy, to join their communion.
In October, 1 804, the bishops held a convocation,
which unanimously resolved, that subscription to
thirty-nine articles, similar to those of the church
of England, should be required of candidates for
ordination. In consequence, nearly all the clergy
submitted to the jurisdiction of the episcopal col
lege. In order to enlarge the narrow incomes of the bi
shops, and poorest of the inferior clergy, collections
were made in Scotland and in England ; the result
of which has been the allowance of 100/. per annum
to the bishops residing in Edinburgh, 60/. to the pri
mus, and 50/. to each of the other bishops ; besides
some small stipend to a few of the presbyters. A
very primitive contrast this, to the princely revenues,
the untold thousands poured annually into the laps
of the incumbent prelates of Canterbury, Durham,
Winchester ; and, indeed, of the great proportion,
both of English and Irish bishops ; as well as of other
dignitaries, and beneficed clerks, in the united
church of England and Ireland.
In anwser to his Scottish seceding friend, Mr.
Newton says : I do not wonder that prelacy appears
in a very unfavourable light in Scotland, as the prin
cipal characters who laboured to settle it there, and
the general strain of their conduct, would have dis
paraged the cause of truth itself. And even at pre
sent, the general appearance of the church of En
gland can have nothing in it very inviting to spiritual
persons, who have not acquired some previous good
will to it by education. But, I believe, this is not
owing to its outward form, but to the ivant of the Gos-

228 MR. HERVEY.
pel, and to the absence of the Holy Spirit, whose in
fluences are only found concurring with the declara
tion of his own truth.
I believe if all our bishops were such men as
Leighton and Bedel, and all our parochial ministers
experimental preachers of the grace of God, the con
stitution of the church would no way interfere with
the general edification of the people ; and without
the influence of the good Spirit, and ministers filled
with faith and grace, it signifies little, whether the
Outward administrations of church matters be in
the hands of bishops*' or synods, or general assem
blies. The Jewish church service was formed upon
a confessedly Divine institution ; the place, the tem
ple, the seasons, the sacrifices, the priesthood, were
all, by express direction, from the Lord. But when
they lost sight of spirituality, and rested in outward
services, in vain they said, the temple of the Lord are
we; when the Lord of the temple had forsaken,
them, and declared himself displeased with his own
appointments. In a letter, written in July, 1 778, Mr. Newton says :
I believe there has not been a Gospel sermon
preached at Weston Favel, since Mr. Hervey's
death ; nor can 1 hear that there is one spiritual per
son in the parish. His other parish of Collingtree
is likewise now a dark place ; though there may be
half a dozen people there, who know something of
the Lord. Ipreached twice a year at Collingtree,
for about ten years, but I am now quite shut out.
Mr. Hervey's usefulness was chiefly in his writings.
A few people in the neighbourhood profited by him,
who, since his death, have mostly joined the dissent
ers; but he never knew that one soul was awakened
in the parish where he lived, though he was, in every
respect, one of the greatest preachers of the age.
As plain in his pulpit service, as florid in his writ
ings The Lord showed in him, that the work is all
his own, and that the best intrument can do no more
than he appoints. His own, mother and sister lived

SECTARIAN BIGOTRY. 229
with him ; his temper was heavenly, his conversa^
tion always spiritual and instructive ; yet he could
make no impression upon them, living or dying.
I did not suppose that the seceders, or any other
spiritual people, confined the church of Christ with
in their own pale, by express or positive declaration ;
but I thought the seceders made a point of having as
little communication as possible, in spirituals, beyond
their pale. Indeed, I believe all denominations, as
such, abound with bigotry, in favour of their own side ;
and that the ministers and private Christians in each,
are more or less freed from it, in proportion as they
are favoured with more of the unction of the Holy
Spirit, and as they have more opportunities of ob
serving his work carried on amongst other parties.
And, perhaps, the most catholic minded Christian
upon earth, has more bigotry in him than he is
aware of.
To esteem all modes and forms of worship as
equally agreeable to the Scriptures, or conducive to
edification; or all difference of sentiment amongst
those who hold the head, to be of no real import
ance, is quite a different thing. We have a right to
judge and act for ourselves, and to follow the light
we have received ; and are only blameable when we
censure or dislike others, because they do not exactly
see with our eyes, in matters not essential.
In another letter, written soon after, Mr. Newton
says : this county of Leicester was, seven years ago,
a very dark land. But the Lord has since caused
the light of his Gospel to shine at Leicester, here,
and in three or four other towns. He placed Mr.
Robinson at Leicester, a young man of Cambridge,
Whom he furnished with abilities, zeal and meek
ness, suitable to the station. For, as he was only
curate at first, it seemed no easy matter so to obviate
the- prejudices of an ignorant and numerous people,
as to be able to maintain his standing; and, at the
same time, be faithful to their, souls. But the Lord
was with him, and therefore he prospered. And the

230 FORCE OF TRUTH.
Lord has since fixed him, and given him one of the
five churches there for his own. He has been, and is,
very useful ; preaches to large congregations, and
many people are turned from darkness to light, and
walk worthy of the Gospel.
Humanly speaking, if the act of parliament giving
the English bishops power of summary and unrespon
sible suspension, had been passed, while Mr. Robin
son was only curate at Leicester, he would have
been soon silenced ; seeing, that since the enact
ment of that infamous law, many less powerful foes
to formalism and irreligion, than Mr. Robinson, have
been driven out of the diocese of Lincoln, for the of
fence of being zealous Gospel preachers, and faith
ful parish priests. Mr. Vaughan has written a very
interesting account of the exemplary life, and spirit
ual labours, of Mr. Robinson.
Mr. Newton likewise mentions Dr. Ford, as an
evangelical churchman. He was intimate with the
late archbishop of Canterbury, and on the high road
to clerical honours. But when the Lord revealed
his Gospel to him, and gave him a thirst for the good
of souls, those who thought to promote him, were of
fended. He expects to live and die vicar of Melton
Mowbray. But he has a higher honour than the
world can give ; that of winning souls for Christ.
Speaking of himself and his removal to London,
Mr. Newton says : it is a time of trial at Olney, but it
is needed. I had provided a minister to succeed
me, but the people were infatuated to refuse him ;
though they knew, and could not but respect him.
Now they wish for him, but it is too late. His name
is Scott, a neighbouring curate, whom the Lord was
pleased to call and teach himself. The narrative of
his conversion, called The Force of Truth, is, in my
judgment, one of the clearest, most striking, and sa
tisfactory accounts of a supernatural change, that
has appeared in print at any time.
I am wonderfully at peace in my new settlement.
My lecture on the Lord's day evening is much

ROBINSON  NEWTON. 231
crowded. My dispensation, likewise, seems to be
peace. My congregation is made up from various
and discordant parties ; who, in the midst of differ
ences, can agree in one point, to hear patiently a
man who is of no party. I say little to my hearers of
the things wherein they differ ; but aim to lead them
all to a growing and more experimental knowledge
of the Son of God* and a life of faith in him. The
physician's business is with the body itself, how to
preserve or to restore health. The care of the
dress, the knowledge of the fashions, a skilful con
trivance about the size, shape, or colour of the coat,
is the business of the tailor. But I cannot submit to
be a tailor in divinity. If I see my patients thriving
in the power of godliness, I leave them to the Lord,
and their own consciences, as to the form.
In February, 1781, Mr. Newton says : as to the
state of religion in this city, London, there are in the
establishment but two Gospel ministers, with churches
of their own ; Mr. Romaine and myself. But we
have about ten clergymen, who, either as morning
preachers or lecturers, preach either on the Lord's
day, or at different times of the week, in perhaps
fifteen or sixteen churches. The tabernacle and
Tottenham-court chapel are very large, and in the
hands of Mr. Whitfield's trustees. In them, the Gos
pel is dispensed to many thousands of people by a
diversity of ministers, clergy, dissenters, or lay
preachers, who are, in general, lively, faithful, and
acceptable men.
There is likewise the Lock, and another chapel in
Westminster, served by Mr. De Coetlegen, and Mr.
Peck well; both well attended. And so is lady
Huntingdon's chapel, which will hold about two
thousand, and is supplied by able ministers. There
is another^ not so large, in the same connexion. Mr.
Wesley has one large, and several smaller chapels ;
and though they .are Arminians, there are many ex-
^ cellent Christians, and some good preachers among
them. There are, likewise, several preachers of the

232 LONDON RELIGION.
methodist stock, not connected with any of the dis
senting boards. The churches, chapels, &c. open on
the Lord's day for the methodists, as distinct from
dissenters, will contain thirty thousand people* and
are generally all crowded.
Among the dissenters, the presbyterians, except
ing a few Scottish churches, have deviated widely
from the way of their forefathers. Their ministers
are, some of them, men of learning and abilities;
but very few preach the doctrines of the Cross.
Their auditories are rather polite and elegant, than
numerous ; and their profession of religion not very
strict. Experience and observation prove* that no
doctrine but Jesus Christ and him crucified, will turn
the stream of the heart, or withstand the stream of
the world.
The baptists are general and particular ; the latter
is the larger and sounder part. They are a respect
able people, have many good ministers, and are te
nacious of the truth. They are, I think over zealous
about the point of baptism; and their numbers are
more increased by proselytes from other denomina
tions, than by conversion under their own preachers.
The independents, for the most part, retain a form
of sound words; though some appear verging to a
declension in doctrine. The life and glory, I appre
hend, is abated among them as a body. Some of
their sound, judicious, able preachers are poorly at
tended ; and conformity to the world seems growing
among these nonconformists. We have, further, in
London, and in some other places, settlements of
Moravians ; than whom I know not a more excellent,
spiritual, evangelical people.
These are my thoughts on the Lord's floor in this
city. In the great abounding of profession, too many,
doubtless, bear no nearer relation to the true church,
than the chaff to the wheat ; but I hope the number
of solid, exemplary believers is Very considerable ;
and I hope the Lord's work is growing and spread- ^
ing, both in city and country. Every year adds to

PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION. 233
the number of evangelical clergymen, and the Lord
still maintains a succession of promising young men
in both the universities ; some of whom are ordain
ed every season; yet the number of serious students
is still kept up by others, whose hearts he inclines to
devote themselves to sanctuary service.
This is almost the only encouraging sign we have
in this dark and awful day ; and it does encourage
me to hope, that, sinful as we are, the Lord will not
give us up to the will of our enemies ; because he has
a remnant, and a work amongst us.
What proportion the papists bear to other dissent
ers, 1 know not; but we are more in danger of be
ing overrun with infidelity than popery. Nor do I be
lieve that the papists are remarkably increased. I
am no friend to popish errors, but could not, in con
science, join the protestant association. I did not wish
for the act in favour of the papists; I thought it
granted too much. But when it had passed, I could
not join in the petition for a total repeal, and to bring
back all former penalties. The first movers of the
association were mostly my friends. They acted,
doubtless, conscientiously, but were mistaken in
their principles.
I think the papists should be restrained from teach
ing the children of protestants. But they have as
good a right to judge for themselves, and to educate
their own children as I have. Our Lord's kingdom
is not of this world, and his subjects have no warrant
from his word to inflict pains and penalties upon any
people, in matters pertaining to conscience ; of
which he alone is the Lord and Judge. The protest
ant association when it became popular, was adopted
by thousands, whose whole religion consisted in a cry
against popery. It sounded in my ears like the old
cry, Mey*Aij »? AfTtptt, and, at length, issued in those
horrible riots, which will leave a lasting stain upon
our history.
b The better part of the association abhorred those
outrages ; but though they had no such design, they
30

234 SPIRIT OF POPERY.
proved the occasion. And though they meant well,
I consider the event as a token of the Lord's dis
approbation of the methods they took. It seemed
as if giving the papists more liberty, was the only sin
of the nation; the only evil that called for redress.
There was no association formed, nor petition
thought of, for the suppression of the abominable
profanation of the Lord's day, of adultery, drunken
ness, profaneness, or perjury; no apprehension en
tertained of those evils, which, though almost uni:
versal among us, would not have been suffered in the
better days of pagan Rome. But allowing liberty
to papists appeared the chief thing ; the one thing
to be complained of, and guarded against. I did
not wonder at the issue. The Lord will pour con
tempt upon a spirit of intolerance, even when mani
fested by his own people.
And in a subsequent letter, recurring to this sub
ject, he says : I am such an enemy to popery, that I
dislike it, even in a protestant form; and all parties
of protestants are more or less infected with it. If I
claim the liberty of seeing with my own eyes, I
speak like a protestant; if I expect others to see
with my eyes, or wish to punish, or despise them, if
they do not, I so far, act in the spirit of popery. I
do not wish to see popery prevail in England, but it
is a judgment we well deserve.
As a Christian, 1 am not called to prevent the
growth of popery, any other way, than by preaching
the truth, by prayer, and by a Gospel conversation.
As to what can be done by edicts and penalties, let
the dead bury their dead; I leave it to the men of
the world, who can see no other walls or bulwarks
for the security of the church of Christ, than such as
they are able to build themselves. I dare not look
to any protection, but that of God. I have nothing
to do with an arm of flesh in this- business. At pre
sent, I must own, that infidelity, and contempt of God,
appear to me more terrible, more upon the increase,,,
and more Hkely to be our ruin, than popery. If

CHURCH BIGOTRY. 235
there was not a papist in the kingdom, I should still
fear we are almost ripe for destruction.
How it is in Scotland, I know not; but I believe
most of the loudest, in England, against popery, had
little more regard for the true Gospel than the papists
themselves. And though some good persons were
among them, the majority of serious people were
quiet in their tents, and more taken up with mourn
ing over the general prevalence of sin, than with the
liberty granted to the papists.
In March, 1783, Mr. Newton, in reference to the
narrow spirit of sectarianism, asks the same corres
pondent ; Is it not strange, that, when we profess to
receive the New Testament as our rule, and to form
our plans upon it, some of the plainest and most ob
vious precepts should be so generally overlooked ?
How plain is that in Rom. xv. 7 ! Now how does
Christ receive us ? Does he wait till we are all ex
actly of a mind? does he confine his regards, his
grace, his presence, within the walls of a party ? is
he the God of the presbyterians, or the independents
only ? do not some amongst you, and some amongst
us, know, with equal certainty, that he has received
them ? Do not they, and do not we, know what it is
to taste that he is gracious ? does he not smile upon
your ordinances, and upon ours ? are not the fruits
of faith the same, on both sides of the Tweed, and in
every corner of the land ?
And shall zeal presume to come in, with its ifs and
its buts, and to build up walls of separation between
those who are joined to the Lord by one spirit ; in
direct contradiction to the tenor of the whole Rom.
xiv. ; and think it has a right to despise and censure,
to judge and condemn, when it is expressly forbidden
to interfere ? The Lord, by his apostle, says : let
every one be persuaded in his own mind ; and how
dares zeal say otherwise ? Yet many true believers
are so much under the spirit of self and prejudice,
that they verily mean to do the Lord service, by sub-

236 GENERAL PROFLIGACY.
stituting their own for his commands. And they say,
you must think and act as I do, subscribe my paper,
and worship in my way ; or else, though I hope the
Lord has received you, it is my duty to keep my dis
tance from you.
This assuming, dictating spirit, is popery among
us in a protestant form ; indeed, the root and source
whence most of the popish abominations have sprung.
It is much the same to me, whether the Scriptures are
locked up, or not, if I must read them with another's
eyes. I think we have all an equal right to judge
for ourselves, and that we are no more bound to fol
low implicitly the sic volumus, sic jubemus, or sic arbitra-
mur of a bench of bishops, or a board of independ
ents, or a general assembly, than of a conclave of
cardinals. I could fill a sheet on the mournful subject of the
profligacy and calamities of the times. The Lord's
hand is lifted up, but few acknowledge or are af
fected by it. Our public affairs are dark, and likely
to be darker. I cannot but rejoice that an end is
put to the destructive war abroad ; but I dread the
effects of our dissensions and confusions at home ;
especially when I see how profaneness, infidelity, and
all the usual forerunners of national ruin, abound and
spread. We seem to have little more union, pub
lic spirit, or sense of the hand of God over us, than
the Jews had, just before the destruction of Jerusa
lem. And yet I hope we shall not, like them, be given
up to utter ruin. For, though the nation at large
seems wicked and obstinate, to an extreme ; yet the
Lord has a people among us, and, I hope, upon the
increase. And though too many professors are far
from adorning the Gospel they profess, yet there are,
I hope, a growing number of excellent Christians
who sigh and mourn for the evils they cannot pre
vent, and are standing in the breach, in the spirit of
wrestling prayer. For the elects' sake, I hope, the

CHURCH EVANGELICALS. 237
days of trouble shall be shortened and moderated ;
and that we shall not be utterly forsaken.
And in November, 1784, Mr. Newton writes to his
seceding friend, that what seems principally wanting,
both in England and in Scotland, is a dispensation of
the^Holy Spirit. Without this, I hardly see a pin to
choose among all the different modes and forms of
church government. With this, the one true church
of Christ would flourish with us and with you, under
all the different forms, which obtain amongst those
who hold the head.
The parishes, in England, where the people choose
their ministers, are comparatively few. The most
are appointed by patrons. But the great Head of
the church has the supreme patronage. And Gospel
ministers are, here and there, brought into both sorts
of places. Even in Cambridge, we have two faithful
and able parochial ministers. The number of Gos
pel preachers in our church is greatly upon the in
crease ; several valuable young men are ordained
every quarter ; perhaps not fewer than twenty or thirty
in a year. And, now and then, we hear of a minister
awakened in his own parish, after a course of years
spent, without any regard to the souls of his people,
or any skill to teach them.
Some, who have taken pains to get the best inform
ation, think we have now more than three hundred (out
of eleven thousand established clergy) Gospel preach
ers, fixed in parishes ; the most of them, either curates
or lecturers ; but we have a good number of bene
ficed clergymen among them ; and, in some places, a
considerable work. London is highly favoured. But
though we have many good preachers, multitudes of
hearers, and many excellent Christians, there is, like
wise, abundance of light professors ; and, 1 think, a
general complaint, that the ordinances, though bless
ed to the edification of believers, are not signally
owned to the conversion of sinners.
In a correspondence with Mr. Campbell of Scot
land, covering an interval of years from 1789 to 1802,

•JSB REVIVALS DISCOURAGED
Mr. Newton not only shows the state of religion in
the Anglican Church establishment, during that pe
riod ; but, in his own truly catholic spirit, exhibits a
fine contrast to those sectarian bigots, with whom
churchmanship is all, and Christianity nothing.
' In 1792, he wrrites : the revival at Bala demands
thankfulness. The Lord, according to his sovereign
pleasure, now and then vouchsafes such seasons of
refreshment, as draw the attention of many. But
hitherto, they have usually been local and tempo
rary. I remember one in Scotland, almost fifty years
ago. The most extensive, I think, took place in
America, about the same time, and was first observed
under Dr. Edwards's ministry, at Northampton.
There is generally much good done in such seasons
of power; but we must not expect that every ap
pearance will answer our wishes. There are many
more blossoms upon a tree in spring, than there will
be apples in autumn. Yet we are glad to see blos
soms, because we know, that if there are no blos
soms, there can be no fruit.
When such sudden and general awakenings take
place among people, ignorant, and unacquainted
with Scripture, they are more or less attended with
blemishes and misguided zeal. The enemy is watch
ful to sow tares among the wheat. Thus it has al
ways been. It was so in the Apostle's day. Offences
arise, and they who wish to find something at which
4o stumble and cavil, by the righteous judgment of
God, have what they wish for. But they who love
the Lord, and have a regard for precious souls, will
rejoice in the good that is really done; and can ac
count for the occasional mixtures, from the present
state of human nature. That the good work at Bala
may flourish, and extend to London and Edinburgh,
is my sincere prayer.
I would, in passing, notice, that the English esta
blished church as a body, uniformly discourages, and
labours to destroy, all revivals of religion. From
Ihe time of the great revival under Wesley and

BY ANGLICAN CHURCH — 239
Wbitfield, through all the subsequent awakenings, to
the present hour, the secular governors of the An
glican Church, and its bishops and dignitaries, ge
nerally, have set their faces, as so many flints, against
every appearance of the quickening influences of
the Holy Spirit, operating to call those who are, by
nature, dead in trespasses and sins, to life, and light,
and immortality, in God, as Christ reconciling him
self to them. And sorry am I to be obliged to add,
that in this respect, as well as in some other not to be
commended instances, too large a portion of the
American-Anglo-Church follows the unscriptural ex
ample of its established mother.
" What do people inean by a revival of religion ?"'
asked one of our most intelligent, learned, and ami
able churchmen, the other day. His ecclesiastical
instructor answered, that " these revivals were all
nonsense, and cant, and irregularity, and fanaticism,
and methodism, and Calvinism. For all regularly-
baptized persons are regenerated, and need no reviv
al ; and all others, being nonepiscopalians, and hav
ing no covenant claim to salvation, have no religion
to revive ; but are as our aboriginal Indians, and
other heathen."
Nevertheless, with all due deference to this great
dragon of formalism, there is such a thing as a re
vival of religion. Many revivals have recently oc
curred, and are still progressive, in this, and in some
of the eastern states, and in many other parts of the
American Union. A revival of religion is an awak
ening of those, who are perishing in the death-sleep
of carnal security and confidence ; covered all over
with the thick scales of formalism ; living without
God, and without Christ, and without hope, in the
world ; to a sense of their own natural depravity.
their lost condition, the necessity of a change of
heart ; of living by faith, of leading a pure and holy-
life, of laying hold on Christ, as the only, the sole
source of their eternal salvation.

240 AND AMERICAN-ANGLO-CHURCH.
There was a great revival of religion in Europe,
at the Reformation from popery, when God raised
up Luther, and Calvin, and Melancthon, and others,
as beacon lights, to show their fellow-men, regularly
baptized, and episcopally regenerated, as were then
nearly all the inhabitants of Christendom, the way
from the darkness of form, and ceremony, and su
perstition, and lust, and blood, up into the open day
light of the pure Gospel.
There was a great revival of religion in England,
among all denominations, about the middle of the
eighteenth century, under the powerful, evangelical
preaching of Wesley and Whitfield, and their disci
ples and followers. There is a great revival of reli
gion now, over almost all Christendom ; nay, even in
the Anglican and American-Anglo-Churches; not
withstanding the deadly hostility of their nume
rous hosts of formal, secular clergy, to every thing in
the shape of evangelical doctrine, and spiritual
piety. A revival of religion causes men to cast away all
confidence in their own s«^"-righteousness ; and to
exchange their semipagan, vapid ethics, for the pure
doctrines of grace ; the doctrines of the Reformers,
of the Apostles, of Christ. All which are as a vo
lume sealed, and a fountain closed, to formalists;
who never thus either instruct the living, or direct the
dying. For example, in visiting the sick, they con
fine their views to mere human relations ; and bid
the departing sinner be of good cheer; because,
peradventure, he has neither cheated, nor robbed,
nor murdered any of his fellow-men ; has neither, to
use Mr. Jefferson's phrase, picked a pocket, nor
broken a leg.
Which may, possibly, be all very true ; and yet the
expiring creature not be fit to appear before the
judgment seat of that God, who will not suffer sin to
go unpunished ; who requires a living faith, internal
holiness, and a saving personal interest in the all-suffi-

FORMALISM  POPERY. 241
cient sacrifice; as the indispensable passports to,
eternal life.
It is worthy of remembrance, that this mode of ad
ministering consolation to a sick or death bed, is
precisely similar to that described by Mr. Ward, in
his farewell letters, as taking place among the form
alists of Hindusthan. When a Hindu comes to die,
his fiends endeavour to console him by repeating his
good deeds; that he has always been a good man ;
has worshipped the gods ; regularly performed his
ablutions ; been liberal to the priests ; has done no
body any harm ; and that therefore, he can have
nothing to fear.
Thus, formalism is the same self-righteous self-idol
atry in a Hindu heathen, as in a regularly baptized,
nominal Christian.
In May, 1793, Mr. Newton writes,— so far as pojoe-
ry may concern the civil state of the nations, I ap
prehend no great danger from it. Infidelity and scep
ticism are the spreading popery at present. The
spirit and strength of popery seems broken, and the
pope little more regarded by the bulk of the Roman
church, than by the protestants. The heavy penal
laws, formerly in force, however politically necessa
ry, do not appear consistent either with the letter or
spirit of the New Testament. In a religious view, I
cannot see why a papist has not as good a right to
worship God according to his conscience, though er
roneous, and to educate his children, as I have my
self. I am no friend to persecution or restraint in
matters of conscience.
The stir made in 1780, when protestants were gain
ing more liberty in popish countries, was a reproach
to our national character, both as Britons and pro
testants. And I hope never to see such a time again
upon such a pretence. I cannot see that an unprin
cipled or wicked protestant, is a whit better than a
bigoted papist. Yet these, of all sorts, are tolerated.
And towards the close of the same year, he says :
I have a letter from Dr. Robbing, of" Plymouth, in
31

242 REVIVALS  BEST CHRISTIAN.
Massachusetts, whose name I never heard before.
He gives an account of a sudden revival of religion
there, much like that you had from Bala. It began
since Christmas last, when every thing seemed dead
or declining around him. He has been a minister
there upwards of thirty years. He writes like a
good old soldier. Thus, in different places, the wall
of Zion is building up in these troublous times.
The Lord has not forsaken the earth, bad as it is.
In London we have abundance of the Gospel ; and,
perhaps, it never was more clearly and practically
preached. But we may lament with you, the want
of more accompanying power.
When we really feel our need of a revival, it is a
sign that we are already, in a measure, revived. The
grand symptom of a decline is insensibility. When
Ephraim has gray hairs, the mark of leprosy here
and there upon him, and knoweth it not : Hosea, vii.
9. But, indeed, we all need reviving in our persons,
families, religious societies, and in the nations. We
pray for it, and perhaps the Lord is about to answer
our prayers, by the very things we are afraid of. The
building of the wall may be carried on most pros
perously in troublous times. And whatever report
flesh and sense may make, faith will allow that those
must be the best times, when the best cause flourish
es most. It is to be hoped that many have been
taught by famine, sword, or pestilence, after they had
long heard the Gospel in vain.
In August, 1794, he says: if I was qualified to
search out the best Christian in the kingdom, I should
not expect to find him either in a professor's chair, or
in a pulpit. I should give the palm to that person,
who had the lowest thoughts of himself, and the most
admiring and cordial thoughts of the Saviour. And
perhaps, this may be some bedridden old man or
woman, or a pauper in a parish workhouse. Our re
gard to the Lord is not to be measured by our sensi
ble feelings, by what we can say or write ; but by
the simplicity of our dependence, and the uniform

eHURCH EVANGELISM — IRRELIGION. 243
tenor of our obedience to his will. But, I trust, I
wish equally well to the Gospel, whether preached in
a church, a chapel, a kirk, a meeting house, or a
barn ; and whether the preachers are of the English
or Scottish establishments, seceders, reliefmen, or
methodists. The Gospel certainly spreads in the establishment.
Young men of abilities and piety are ordained every
season ; there are four seasons in the year ; and we
now and then hear of clergymen awakened, after
they had been blind teachers of the blind, for many
years. In London we are highly favoured with ma
ny ministers of the first rank for zeal and wisdom.
Such there are, likewise, in some of our great towns,
as Leicester, Birmingham, Leeds, Halifax, York,
'Hull, Reading ; and, I hope, there are several hun
dreds, settled in places of less note, who are diligent
and useful. Add to this, the itinerants in town and
country, in Whitfield's, Wesley's, and lady Hunting
don's departments, among whom are many faithful
and good preachers ; and many of the evangelical
dissenters ; and we may hope, that real Religion is
reviving and spreading amongst us.
This, I trust, is a token, almost the only one, for
good, in this dark and threatening day. The ,bulk of
the nation is asleep in sin ; infidelity, folly and dissipa
tion abound every where ; but the Lord has a pray
ing people, who mourn the evils they cannot prevent,
and the miseries which are the fruits of sin. These,
I hope, would appear a large number, if brought all
together; but scattered as they are up and down,
they are one in him ; and for their sakes, I hope our
civil and religious privileges will be still preserved
to us.
Yet in November of the same year, he writes :
the profanation of the Lord's day is a great sin ; but
many sin through ignorance. They have neither
good example to lead them to church, nor good in
struction when they go. It is one of the many crying
sins, which form our national character. But I do

244 IRISH TOLERATION.
not think it is the loudest. And I think the guilt of it
lies heavily on the great, the magistrates, and the (esta
blished) clergy. If the hungry sheep look up, they
are not fed ; or the places where there is food for
them, are very few.
In February, 1795, he says: I think the Roman
Catholics in Ireland were long treated much fike Is
rael in Egypt. I do not consider their toleration as
any Way connected with religion ; and as a political
measure, I highly approve it, upon the principle, that
I am glad of liberty to worship God according to my
light ; and, therefore, am very willing that others
should have the same liberty. Toleration, if consi
dered as a matter of favour, is an insult upon con
science, and an intrusion on the prerogative of the
Lord of conscience. I should be glad of a tolera
tion to eat, if I might not eat without it ; yet I should
think it hard, if I could not breakfast or dine, with
out the leave of a parliament.
Popery always showed a persecuting spirit ; and
therefore, when the protestants got power, as they
were unwilling to risk being again called to the ho
nour of suffering for the Gospel's sake, and equally
unable to trust in the providence of God, they en
trenched themselves within a bulwark of cruel, un
christian, penal laws. The Jewish nation was a
theocracy, and idolatry was not only a sin against
God, but a crime against the state, and, therefore,
punishable with death. Protestants availed them
selves of this precedent: call the papists idolaters,
and treat them as you please. Tear away their
children from them; hinder them from worshipping
God at all. Let any rebellious, profligate son, claim
his father's estate, if he will but renounce popery,
he need not have any religion ; he may be an atheist,
provided he promises not to be a papist. Oppress
them as much as you can, and if you do not quite
murder them, admire your own mercy.
I abhor the treatment of the presbyterians in Scot
land, in Charles the second's time ; and I do not

god's government. 245
think much better of the severities against the pa
pists in Ireland. I did not wonder at the contempt
the Lord poured upon the mistaken zeal of the pro
testant association of the year 1780. Can the Gos
pel of Christ authorize such things ? Are these the
fruits of love ? Is it thus we do as we wish to be
done by ? Surely, the Son of Man came, not to de
stroy, but to save men's lives.
In June, 1795, he says: many think, yea, many
presume to say, that God does not govern the earth.
He has a controversy with the nations, and especial
ly, with our nation ; which, considering our superior
privileges, I deem to be the worst in Christendom.
Yet the light and power of the Gospel are certainly
upon the increase in England. This is the only good
sign of the times I can discern. We may pray in
faith for the spread of the Gospel, and the enlarge
ment of our Lord's kingdom ; for we may be sure,
this is the great design he has in view ; and for
which the wheels of time and nature are kept in mo
tion. This is the grand mark, to which the rise and fall
of empires, and the commotions of the present day,
"have a direct tendency ; though the way of the Lord
is so in the sea, that we short sighted creatures can
not trace the connexion of events, and the depend
ence of one upon another. But his word warrants
us to believe, what we cannot clearly see. And,
even now, his hand is so visibly and awfully lifted
up, that it becomes us to see, and acknowledge it,
and humble ourselves under it ; whether others will
or not. The Lord has a controversy with this nation ;
he is pleading his own cause against the prevailing
spirit of infidelity, and the abominations that abound ;
and he will make sinful worms know that he is the
Lord, and that in all they speak proudly, he is above
them. Let us, my friend, settle it as a maxim, that it is
the best time, when the best cause flourishes most;
for as the life is more than meat, so is the soul more

246 newton's situation.
than the body. If one half of the 'kingdom was ra
vaged by war, provided the distress was sanctified to
stir up many careless ones to seek the Lord and his
salvation ; such a dispensation would be more a
mercy than a judgment.
In reference to his own situation, and the offence
which his evangelism gave to the church establish
ment, Mr. Newton writes, in July, 1796: some have
Wondered, of late, how I could stay with comfort in
my present situation. But nothing is imposed upon
me, as a clergyman, that hurts my conscience. I
find liberty in the service ; my church is full and
crowded ; my auditory peaceful and attentive ; there
are many eminent Christians among them, and a ge
neral seriousness upon the face of the congregation.
Some, and as times go, many, are successfully awak
ened ; and we have, particularly, a fine show of
young people springing up, and increasing in num
bers and graces, like willows by the water courses.
In a word, the blind receive their sight, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
hungry are fed, the burdened are set at liberty. With
these tokens of the Lord's presence amongst us, and
his goodness afforded in my private and public work,
I am well satisfied that I am where he would have
me to be. If he accepts and visits us, it is a small
matter, if some of our brethren are displeased. If he
is pleased to smile upon us, we can bear their cen
sures. Besides, if I leave this church, to whom must
I go ? The presbyterians, independents, baptists,
seceders, &c. all say, with equal positiveness : we are
the people. But I cannot join them all. By the
grace of God, I will love, and pray for them all;
but will join none of them. I will stay where I am;
and if I were to choose again, I would make the
same choice to-morrow. I never did, I trust I never
shall repent it. My reasons assigned in the Apologia,
are more and more confirmed to me, the longer I live.
In the October following, he writes : we spent the
first week at Reading, where the Lord has many peo-

HOME HEATHENISM — MORAVIANS. 247
pie, warm hearted, upright and loving The rest of
our time we were at Mr. T  's, at Portswood
Green. He lives within two miles of S  , where
there are five churches, but no pulpit open for me.
But Mr. T  opened his house, and made room
for about three hundred hearers. I preached three
evenings in the week, while 1 stayed ; we were often
full; my hearers were chiefly from the neighbouring
villages, and seem willing to hear the Gospel, if they
had any body to preach it to them. But, alas! in
those parts, and in many parts of the kingdom, com
paratively a land of light, the hungry sheep look up,
but are not fed.
We need not go far from home to find people no
less ignorant of spiritual things; no less unconcerned
about their souls, than the heathens in Africa or Ota-
heite. We are encouraged, yea, commanded to
pray, that the Lord of the harvest would send forth
more faithful labourers; for as yet they are but few,
compared with the extensive wilds, at home, and
abroad. In April and July, 1797, he says: I am glad you
have seen a Moravian brother. They are in general
alike ; and have a few peculiarities resulting from
their church constitution ; but as a body, are the most
exemplary, peaceful, and spiritual society, of all that
bear the Christian name. Their grand object, in
which their excellence is signally displayed, is the
conversion of the heathen. In this branch, without
noise or notice, they have done more in promoting
the knowledge of the true Gospel, in about fifty
years, than has been done by all Christendom, in fif
teen hundred years before them. God has given
them the true missionary spirit; and excepting Mr.
Brainerd, and two or three more, in North America,
they have hitherto had a monopoly of it; though
Mr. Cary, the baptist missionary in Bengal, is tread
ing in their steps. Their patience, fortitude, self-de
nial, perseverance, courage, holy wisdom, and sue-

248 PRAYER  MISSION9.
cess, would be astonishing, did we not know whose
they are, and whom they serve.
I am glad that a spirit of prayer is excited in your
parts, on a national account. I wish it was more so
with us. I hope we have many, though comparative
ly few, whose eyes affect their hearts; and who
mourn in secret the evils they cannot prevent. These
are the chariots and horsemen of our Israel. I have
little hope from our fleets and armies, farther than
the Lord may be pleased to give them success, in
answer to the prayers of his people.
This truly Scriptural sentiment coincides with
the strong expression of an eminent American di
vine, delivered from the pulpit, ori a fast day, during
the late war between the United States and Britain.
After showing, both from the Bible and from history,
that pure religion is the only sure bulwark of human
society, the preacher said, " to sum up all in a single
sentence, one praying old woman is of more import
ance to the safety of our country, than twenty blas
pheming generals."
Mr. Newton continues: I hope the spirit for mis
sion*, which has of late been so generally awakened,
will, in due time, by the Lord's blessing, produce
much good. The first and present good effect of it
is the concern excited for the multitudes in our own
land, who are perishing for lack of knowledge. The
evangelical dissenters amongst us are taking this mat
ter into serious consideration, and are sending forth
missionaries into all quarters. And though I am of
the establishment, and their zeal is not likely to ag
grandize mother church, if they employ fit instru
ments, and the Lord is pleased to own their labours,
I must and will rejoice ; for I dare not wish the sheep
should be starved, because their own reputed and of
ficial pastors cannot, or will not feed them.
I know that many on your side of the Tweed, deem
presbyterian order to be dejure divino ; a tabernacle
made exactly according to the pattern on the mount;

'ra& CHURSH ORDER. 249
¦ays*.
and that it would be criminal either to add, or to take
away a single loop or pin. On our side of the river,
many think as highly of episcopal, or of congrega
tional order. Perhaps much of our differences of
opinion on this head, may be ascribed to the air we
breathed, and the milk we drank in our infancy.
If I had lived in Scotland, and known the Lord, my
ministry, I suppose, would have been in the kirk, or
the relief, or the secession ; and if Dr. Erskine had
been born and bred among us, and regarded accord
ing to his merit, he might have been archbishop of
Canterbury long ago.
Thus, I have given my free sentiments on your
knotty point. I would not willingly offend any one.
I claim the privilege of thinking for myself, and am
well content that others should enjoy the same. I
hope I love all, who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity.
If they agree with me in this point, I would not waste
half an hour in attempting to convert them to my
opinion in smaller matters. I leave others to dis
pute if the husk or the shell of the nut be better. I
hope to be content with the kernel.
In the October following, he writes: the Gospel
ministers in our establishment are mostly Confined to
their parishes, and cannot do much abroad ; but the
congregational dissenters are stirring in most parts
of our kingdom, and associating with a design to
spread the good news among the villages in their re
spective neighbourhoods, which are wofully neglected
(by the state clergy) in many places. Indeed, we can
not expect those who have no concern for their
own souls, should be careful for the souls of their
parishioners. I fear, but few of them, comparatively,
have either the will, or the skill, which the shepherd's
office requires ; and therefore, though I am a mighty
good churchman, T must bid God speed to the labours
of all who preach the truth in love, whether in meet
ings or barns, in the highways or the fields. It is
better people should be dissenters, or methodists,
than [regularly baptized] heathens.

250 INFIDELITY  LAY PREACHING.
Infidelity spreads, and, I trust, the Gospel spreads
like wise. P -rhaps, the time is coming, when all sects
and parties bhall be reduced to two — Christians and
infidels. So it was at the first promulgation of the
Gospel. For what 1 know, before longi the infidel
spirit may be so prevalent, that no man, without real
grace, will dare to avow even a professional attach
ment to the name of Jesus ; then, formal professors
will drop off like leaves from the trees in October.
In the year 1798, he says : I rejoice in the success
of the northern mission. May it still increase ! I
trust the Lord is spreading and reviving his work in
our land, and if so, I care not by what instruments, or
under what mode or name, the good cause is pro
moted. I suppose the introduction to the Northern Tour
will not be relished by every one ; but the arguments1
in favour of itinerancy, and lay preaching, will not be
easily refuted. Yet still I think lay preachers should
be sent, if not by bishops, consistories, or elders, at
least, by some religious persons or societies, compe
tent to judge of their fitness. Perhaps even this
would not be necessary, if all, who undertake the
service, were men of character and abilities. But
the position, that every man, who thinks himself qua
lified to preach, has therefore a warrant to go forth,
produces many bad effects on our side of the Tweed.
Some of them, though they can smite with the
hand, stamp with the foot, and speak with a loud
voice, do not well understand what they say, nor
whereof they affirm ; their preaching is crude, often
erroneous. They diffuse pride, censoriousness, an-
tinomianism, and party rage amongst their adherents ;
for few are so bad but they have some adherents.
The characters of others are suspicious ; they run
about to the neglect of their proper business, and
their families, and, perhaps, become bankrupts ; and
cause the good way to be evil spoken of.
I know not if infidelity has greatly spread,
though its avowal is more public. Many, perhaps

'jjfe DARKNESS OF ENGLAND. 251
most, were heart-infidels, before they read the books
to which^hey ascribe their new wisdom. But the
writings of Paine, and others, like the spear of Ithu-
riel, have brought them forth in their true characters.
Infidelity is now enthroned at Rome ; and many
of the cardinals have sung hymns to the praise of
French liberty; but popery still subsists in many
parts of Christendom ; therefore, I think, infidelity
has not done all its work.
Notwithstanding the confusion and misery spread
over the greater part of Europe, and reaching even
to our sister kingdom, we, in this island, are still pre
served in internal peace. May we not accept his re
peated interpositions in our favour, as a token for
good ; that though he will chasten, he will not de
stroy, nor give us up to the will of them that hate us ?
May we not accept it as an answer to the prayers of
his remnant amongst us ? A small remnant, indeed,
compared with the nation at large ; but not very small
in the aggregate number.
If all, who stand in the breach, pleading for mercyr
could be brought together into one place, I trust
they would appear a goodly company. And though
they are scattered and dispersed up and down the
land, the salt of the earth, which preserves it from
total putrefaction ; yet, in his view, they are all one
connected army, who meet, and unite daily, and often,
at the same rallying point, the throne of grace. Is
not the spirit, that is engaged to spread the Gospel
at home, as well as abroad, another token for good,' at
such a time as this ? Far from recalling his ambas
sadors, which might have an awful appearance of
war, I trust he is increasing their numbers, and en
larging their powers.
Many neglected spots, in different parts of En
gland, are already beginning to rejoice and blossom
as the rose. I question, if any thing you see in Scot
land can give you an idea of the ignorance and
wretchedness that reign in many of our parishes,
where they are no less destitute of the form, than of

252 CHURCH NEGLIGENCE  AWAKENINGS.
the power of godliness ; where the church doors are
seldom opened on the Lord's day ; where three-fourths
of the children of ten or twelve years of age, can
not tell their letters. But these evils are diminish
ing; partly by Sunday schools, in someplaces; and
{tartly by the village preaching, which the evange-
ical dissenters are setting forward in most of our
counties; and in which, I, though not a dissenter,
greatly rejoice, and daily pray for their success.
, If the official shepherds know not to feed, or care for,
either themselves or their flocks, I would be thankful
that others are stirred up to supply their lack of ser
vice. I care not much for order, regularity, or com
mission, in such a case. When a house is on fire,
people of any party or profession are welcome to
bring water to extinguish it, whether churchmen, or
kirkmen, elders, or ploughmen. When great awak
enings take place among people grossly ignorant of
the Scriptures, there are often extraordinary ap
pearances. It was so among our first methodists, un
der Messrs. Wesley, Whitfield, Berridge, &c. It
was so in the great revival in America, which begun
under Mr. Edwards ; so likewise, at Kilsyth.
The. Lord permits it, perhaps, for two reasons ;
first, these stirs engage the attention of the neigh
bourhood, and prompt many to hear, who, other
wise, would not; — second, there are those who want
something to cavil at, and these things furnish the
occasions they wish for, according to the prophecy,
Isaiah, viii. 14, 15. The light comes, but they who
love darkness, think themselves justified in oppos
ing the light, on account of these incidental ble
mishes upon which, therefore, they are glad to expa
tiate. Nay, the Messrs.  s, who were good men, were
extreme bigots ; and because they had left the kirk,
they took it for granted, that the Lord had forsaken
it likewise ; and therefore, hastily concluded, that
the work could not be his. I have heard that they
fasted, and prayed the Lord to put a stop to it.

GROWTH OF DISSENTERS. 253
In the year 1799, he, incidentally, shows the rapid
growth of dissenters in England, when he says : in
London, tabernacles might be built in every street,
without giving umbrage ; and, indeed, places of that
cast are springing up like mushrooms, frequently ;
but then, it is an old matter with us. When Mr.
Whitfield and Mr. Wesley began, there was stir
enough. People were alarmed, as if St. Paul's and
the Monument were to be overturned ; but these
fears have been long since quieted.
I must, and do rejoice in the success of respecta
ble itinerants, in places sadly destitute of the Gospel.
I expect some mixture of human infirmity in the best
designs of the best men ; and Satan will be busy,
when he feels his kingdom shaken. But the Lord
will accept the intentions of his faithful servants, and
overrule all things eventually for good. He will
plead their cause, and put their enemies to shame
and silence, if they simply and patiently commit it
to him ; but if they take it too much into their own
hands, they usually make bad worse. The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal. We should disclaim,
not only fire and sword, but angry disputation and
invective ; for these, also, are carnal weapons. The
Apostle says, — being defamed, we entreat.
Through mercy, there is some stir among the sol
diers with us, and among the seamen in the navy.
May the Lord confirm them, and increase their
numbers !
In 1800, 1801, and 1802, Mr. Newton says : the ac
count of your highland tour, is pleasant and interest
ing. I hear of no such sudden, general awakenings
in our kingdom ; but I hope the Gospel does spread,
though more gradually and silently, especially in
the establishment. Several very promising young
men, are ordained in the course of the year; and
the number of serious students, in both the universi
ties, seems to be still increasing. 1 hope much good
is likewise done by the dissenting itinerancy. But I
fear the savour of the good ointment is in some

254 POLITICS — CATHOLICISM.
places injured, and its efficacy obstructed by the
dead-fly of politics.
Hypothesis must give way to facts; otherwise,
when I consider the letter, or the spirit of the Gos
pel, I should think it impossible that any persons, hav
ing the glory of God and the good of souls at heart,
especially preachers, could perplex themselves, or
their connexions, with political matters. 1 am sure
neither Paul, nor his brother Peter, ever so inter
meddled. From poison and politics, good Lord, de
liver me. I think a political spirit as hurtful to the
life of God in the soul, as poison is to the bodily
frame. I pray the Lord to bless you and all who love his
name in Scotland, whether kirk, circus, relief, burgh
ers, antiburghers, independents, methodists, or by
whatever name they choose to be called. Yea, if
you know a papist who sincerely loves Jesus, and
trusts in him for salvation, give my love to him.
The religion that cometh from above, though
founded upon doctrines, is not so much a string of
sentiments, in a system, as a new nature, a new life.
If a man be not born again, it signifies little, whether
he be called a Calvinist, or an Arminian ; whether
he belong to church, or kirk, relief, circus, or taber
nacle. He may have a name to live amongst his
party ; but he is dead, and incapable, as to spiritu
als, as the stones in the street. On the other hand,
if he be born from on high, he is a new creature ; and
though he may, for a season, be under many inci
dental mistakes, the grace which has called him, wrill
prevail over all, and teach him, in due time, all that
the Lord sees needful for him to know.
Let us preach the deity and atonement of the Sa
viour ; the influences of the Holy Spirit ; the dreadful
evil of sin, as exhibited in the sufferings of Christ,
when treated as a sinner for our sakes ; the new
birth ; and the nature and necessity of that holiness,
which is an essential part of salvation* and without
which no man shall see the Lord. These points will

FORMAL PREACHING. 255
^accord with the feelings of all who are truly taught
of God ; and if in some things, they be otherwise
minded, he will, in due time, reveal it to them if ne
cessary. Thus he taught us, step by step, showing
much patience and long suffering towards us, though
we were dull scholars ; and thus, may we learn of
him to speak the truth in love.
To attack human depravity with philosophy, or
fine sentiments, or by extolling morality, is fighting
Goliah with a wooden sword. Christ was the sub
ject of Paul's preaching ; and no man did more good.
One who preaches Christ, should know him. Col
leges can never make up the want of the knowledge
of Christ. Without Christ, ministers may amuse
their dudience, perhaps send them away admiring
the sermon ; but Paul would have thought little of
this. Paul warned every man ; sinners, of hell ; of
existing continually in misery, if they persisted in
sin. He warned good men of their danger of being
taken in the snare of the devil : thousands of unseen
enemies surround us.
To present every man perfect, is not sinless per
fection ; the more grace a man has, the quicker sen
sibility he has about sin ; nor is it the perfection of
an angel, but of a child, who has all the parts of a
man, but is not a man. A perfect Christian has all
the parts of a Christian ; faith, love, humility, &c.
Some people eonfine their religion to devotional ex
ercises, and lay great stress upon it ; but these are
not perfect Christians — this is only a part of Chris
tianity. Some are offended, if the minister detect
any defect in their character ; but a Christian is
thankful, when his defects are discovered to him.
The communion of saints cannot be easily made in
telligible to the world; but a Christian in London
can rejoice in the conversion of a man in the East In
dies, whose face he never saw, nor ever expects to
see, on earth. He can also feel for a congregation,
when they have a faithful pastor removed from them

256 PROPORTION OF CHURCH EVANGELICALS.
by death ; though not personally acquainted with
any one person in that congregation.
As illustrating the present low state of piety in
England, notwithstanding its national church esta
blishment, it may be noticed, that the late venerable
Thomas Scott wrote his " Essays 6n the most im
portant subjects in Religion," for the express pur
pose of counteracting the prevailing infidelity and
scepticism; as well as to give a distinct view of the
grand peculiarities, and excellent tendency of genu
ine Christianity.
According to Mr. Newton, there were not one
thousand evangelical clergymen in the English
church establishment, in the year (801. What their
number is now, I have not been able to ascertain ex
actly ; but, probably, it does not equal the number of
ministers ejected by the Bartholomew act of 1662;
seeing, that if at the end of sixty years, from 1740 to
1800, less than one thousand evangelicals were found
in the establishment ; it is not likely that a greater
additional number have been procured, during the
last twenty years, in defiance of the frowns of the se
cular government ; and in spite of the systematic
persecution of the hierarchy.
God grant, that such clergy may increase ; as the
only means, under Providence, of averting the im
pending perdition of the Anglican state church !
In the month of October, 1821, the Rev. Charles
Simeon, when present at a meeting of the Society for
promoting Christianity among the Jews, held at Dor
chester, in the county of Dorset, said : that there
were then between two and three hundred young men,
at the university of Cambridge, in training for orders,
who attended upon his preaching and weekly lec
tures ; and all of whom, he thought, were under se
rious impressions, and evangelically inclined.
This fact appears to augur well for the best inte
rests of the church of England. But how are pious
young men to obtain preferment in that secular esta-

CHURCH PREFERMENT. 257
blishment; --more especially, under the recently aug
mented hostility 6f the British civil government, and
its episcopal bench, generally, against all evange
lism ? An hostility quite natural in formal, unrege-
nerate, ungodly men ; whether laics or clerks. And
hence, formalism has prevailed in the English church,
from its first full introduction by Laud, and its entire
consummation by Sheldon, to the present hour.
During the whole of which period, formal, secular
churchmen have, very steadily, received the protec
tion and patronage of the state government ; to the
almost total exclusion of evangelical ministers.
Nor is this, in any way, marvellous ; seeing, as
bishop Burnet expresses himself* in his exposition of
the twenty-fifth article, " the greater part, both of
the clergy and laity, ever were, and ever will be, de
praved and corrupted; it being certain,' that the far
greater part of mankind is ahvays bad, we must con
clude, that the evil does so far preponderate the
good, that they bear no comparison or, proportion to
one another." Now the men who have composed
the British government, for the last two hundred
years, have been, like those who have wielded the
other governments of Christendom,, very generally
irreligious, unconverted, Mnregenerate men, notwith
standing their regular baptism. In general,~fhe nearer
to courts, the farther from Canaan ; Whatever fawn
ing deans or bowing bishops think.
But the Scriptures tell us, the carnal orunrenewed
mind is enmity against God, and the things of God;
and the children of God; and, consequently, carnal^
worldly, secular statesmen,kministers and sovereigns,
would prefer formalism in their established clergy^
because it checks no man's conscience, but allows
him to live as he lists, without God in the World ; to
evangelism, which insists upon a holy life, as the onbj
Evidence of a living faith; alike in princes and poli
ticians, as in the meanest citizens and subjects. A
sufficient reason this, in itself, against a political alli
ance between church and state ; because it necessa-
33

258 CHURCH ORDINATION.
rily ensures an unevangelical, unreligious national
clergy. Nay, but in addition to the dark prospect of
church preferment, how are Mr. Simeon's young evan
gelicals to obtain even ordination at the hands of a
formal diocesan ? For example, what pious protest
ant candidate could swallow the captious sophistry
of the Peterborough questions ; avowedly framed to
stop the ingress of evangelism into the church of
England ? or digest the double justification of Dr.
Tomline ? or bolt the baptismal regeneration of
Richard Mant?
But neither baptismal regeneration, nor double
justification, nor Peterborough casuistry, nor any
thing else, would prove the least'impediment to the
ordination of secular, formal, irreligious candidates.
The doors of the Anglican Church establishment
are always open for the admission of ministers, who
are entire strangers to the grace of Christ; devoid
of Christian knowledge ; lovers of pleasure, more
than lovers of God ; profane, caring for no man's
soul ; companions of the unholy ; making a gain of
godliness, and entering the state church from the
most degrading motives, that they may revel and fat
ten upon its revenues ; while their hearts are radical
ly hostile to the sacred function which they assume :
and to the evangelical doctrines of the church, which
they plunder and disgrace.
Are such ministers calculated to promote piety, and
prevent paganism, in a nation ? calculated to bring
man into a covenant of grace with his offended Ma
ker, when they are themselves enemies to God by
wicked works? Are the mere, careless repetitions
of a form of prayer, and the hurried, heartless read
ing of a printed, or a borrowed sermon, to manifest
the presence, and call down the grace of God, upon
theattendants in a parish church? What an awful
proportion of these episcopally ordained clerks still
Remain in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of
iniquity; and go forth to take possession of the

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. 25$
church benefices and dignities ; procured for them,
either by money, in the way of purchase and barter,
or by family connexions and interest, or by political
influence and exertion ; for W hat ? only to counter
act and destroy the beneficial tendencies of the Gos
pel, with whose precepts and principles, their whole
secular lives are at variance ; to swell the triumphs
of infidel and wicked men ; and to tread in the foot
tracks of that primitive bishop, who, after he had
swallowed the sop, went out and betrayed the Lord
of life.
Such being the condition and direction of the En
glish ecclesiastical establishment, we are not sur
prised at the general prevalence of infidelity and ir
religion in England, now, after nearly three hundred
years trial of the experiment of a state church.
The proof of this awful and alarming state of
things, in England, is taken from the most, unexcep
tionable source. The Christian Observerdeserved-
ly bears a high character for talent, and learning,
and various information. And, what is inmiitely
better, it is truly evangelical ; and as such, esteemed
by serious persons of all denominations in Christen
dom ; and reviled, accordingly, by all ihe stoutest
formalists, in these United States, as well as in En
gland. It is, also, a stanch, able, and uniform ad
vocate for the national Anglican Church, by law es
tablished. A more estimable body of men, in all purity of
doctrine, and holiness of life, than the evangelical
clergy of the church of England, never adorned and
blessed the earth. And, as a body, they are most
conscientiously attached to the establishment of
church and state, under which they have been born,
and trained up, and live. Whence, their statements
of the general condition of religion and morals in
Britain, are entitled to the greater weight, because*
they bear directly against the usefulness of that very
church establishment which theyAbour to uphold,
and to extol. A witness is always competent to testi-

260 BIBLE SOCIETY.
fy in opposition to, though not in favour of hi# own
interest. Does the English established church, as such, en
courage the efforts, now making in the British Isles,
to evangelize the heathen; to diffuse the Gospel
among seamen; to circulate the pure, unsophisticat
ed word of God, without note, and without com
ment; to educate the universal poor of England and
of Ireland ?
Nay, but does not the far greater proportion of
that state church, with all its complicated, and cum
bersome apparatus of archbishops, and bishops, and
deans, and canons, and prebendaries, and archdea
cons, and rectors, and vicars, and curates, frown up
on, and execrate the British and Foreign Bible So
ciety ; the church, and other missionary institutions;
the Bethel union; and every other effort made to
evangelize and to instruct, either the home or thg
colonial population of Britain; as well as the inha
bitants of foreign nations ?
Is ile thus, that the Anglican Church establishment
promotes piety, and prevents paganism among the
British people? How many English and Irish bi
shops are now members of the British and Foreign
Bible Society ? When the comparatively few pre
lates, that belong to that blessed institution, die, will
their vacant seats be filled by their episcopal suc
cessors ? or will that great national society be carT
ried on in all its mighty and beatific operations, by
noraepiscopalian denominations; as the American
Bible Society -is conducted in these United States?
Are missions, at home and abroad ; are the Bethel
flags, and the education of the poor in elemental
Christianity, to be consigned, altogether-, to hands
other than those of the established church of England ?
And is such conduct calculated to seat an expens
ive and burdensome church establishment deep in
the heart affections of the British people ? or, does
it directly tend t^rouse their resistless indignation
against a state mamine, whose constant operation it is

ESTABLISHED CHURCHES. 261
to crusb, every effort made to promote the best, the
immortal interests of the human race?
The evil tendency of all churches is to formalism,
which extinguishes all spiritual mindedness and
practical piety. But established, national, state
churches increase, and perpetuate this evil, by uphold?
ing, with the secular arm, the church walls, priest
hood, and wages, when the religion is gone ; and, al
so, by proscribing the growth of evangelism in other
denominations, as well as, in the dominant sect.
Whereas, in wnestablished churches, a general pre
valence of formalism only depletes, and destroys the
formal sect, without injuring the community at large;
because other denominations are left at full liberty
to build themselves up in strength ; and to fill their
places of worship, by faithfully preaching the pure
Gospel, and by zealously discharging the important
duties of the pastoral office.
If a churqh establishment be necessary to promote
piety, and prevent heathenism, why is Ireland now so
much, more popish and paganish, than when she first
experienced the blessings of her present protestant
episcopal established church, about three hundred
years ago ?
In April, 1822, sir John Newport called the atten
tion of tfie English house of commons to the deplor
able state of Ireland. During the debate, Mr. Charles
Grant, the late secretary to the Irish viceroy, said :
that various petty insurrections had agitated the
peasantry of Ireland for the last seventy years. They
generally arose out of local and casual circumstan
ces. Their effect has been to render the Irish pea
sant, in a great degree, indifferent to all the danger
and discomfort, the outrage, violence, and cruelty,
which are the inseparable attendants upon popular
commotion. Without property, and with Scarcely any of the
comforts of home, he is ever ready to obey the sum
mons to insurrection, in which he has nothing to lose ;
and the personal danger of which, it has been his

262 CONDITION OF. IRELAND.
education, and his habit to despise. In this state of
feelings, it is not wonderful, that the severe pressure
of heavy rents, tithes,. and taxes, general and local,
should drive the peasantry to despair, and produce
such scenes of disorder as have lately been witness
ed in Ireland. Much in these evils is altogether be
yond the power of the legislature to remedy.
Mr. Grant called upon the Irish land owners, who
spend the produce of their estates in other countries,
to return to that station, and those duties, which na
ture had assigned them ; to apply themselves to the
honourable and imperative task of meliorating the
condition of those, by the sweat of whose brow they
lived. More was to be effected by them, in render
ing the Irish people prosperous and happy, than
could be done by a thousand votes or enactments of
the British parliament. In considering what could,
and ought to be done by government, he thought they
should direct their attention to the improvement of
the police and magistracy ; to the revision of the tithe
system; to the liberal support of schools; and to the
removal of religious disabilities.
It would be well for the British people, if its go
vernment would profit by this sound advice of Mr.
Grant; which, doubtless, so far as it goes, would ma
terially benefit Ireland if carried into effect ; and in
benefiting Ireland, strengthen the whole empire. But
Mr. Grant, as an eminently pious man, knows full
well, that no effectual remedy can be found for the
evils of Ireland, but in the existence of an evangelical
clergy ; to reclaim her from the fatal errors of popery,
and the gross darkness of heathenism. The contk
nuance of a formal state church will neutralize and
palsy every effort to produce a permanent meliora
tion of the condition of the Irish people. Though,
doubtless, the removal of tithes, and of religious dis
abilities, will' be of service ; by enabling other deno
minations to spread the Gospel ; even if the esta*
blished church shall still persist in stifling every ray
of evangelical light.

IRISH STATE CLERGY. 263
It greatly behooves the British government to bear
in mind* that the monarchy of England has been
once, already, overthrown, by the mal-admkiistration
and mabconduct of a formal state church.
The reader is referred to Mr. bteven's pamphlet,
entitled, " Remarks on the present state of Ireland,"
for some very important information respecting the
horrible condition of that fine country. He says, the
vast number of parishes which are without ariy resU
dent clergy, is an obvious hindrance to the progress
of education, if not of piety ; and cannot fail to in
volve the established church of Ireland in a solemn
responsibility. It will scarcely be credited, that
there is, at this very time, in one district, a space of
one hundred square miles, in one of the finest counties
of Ireland, in which there has neither been a church,
nor a resident clergyman, within the memory of
man. But, say the nonresident, formal state clergy, we
have no cure ;— there are few or no protestants in
the parish. Pray, gentlemen, have your popish pa
rishioners no souls ? And, since you do nothing, nor
ever even see your parishes, I ask, in the name of
reason, of religion, of common honesty, if you have
no cure, why do you exact your tithes, to the utter
most farthing, from your popish parishioners ? Thus
it is, however, that a national church establishment
promotes piety, and prevents paganism.
Mr. Steven says, that the papists, in strict accord
ance with their dark and deadly superstition, have,
in some places, made outrageous opposition to the
establishment of protestant schools. In one place,
they burned an excellent schoolhouse, and a mas
ter's dwelling-house; and afterwards, proceeded tq
card the master; in doing which they broke two ribs
on one side, and one on the other ; so that his life
was despaired of. This diabolical process is effect
ed by driving a number of nails through a board, in
imitation of a card. They strip the object of their
fury, and drag this instrument of torture up and down

264 FAPAL TYRANNY.
the bare back, till the ribs and back bone are bared.
Mortification and death frequently follow.
. In a, multitude of instances, the whole artillery of
the popish church, as far as it is allowed in Ireland,
has been opened on the unoffending parents, who
dared to exercise the unalienable right of disposing
of their children as they pleased. Numbers have,
notwithstanding, exercised this right; fearless of the
consequences, and, in face of threatenings the most
appalling, have continued their children at the
schools of the Hibernian Society ; others, alarmed
and terrified, with grief have confessed, that they
must withdraw them. In spite of all obstacles, aris-
ingfrom the opposition of the popish clergy to the
diffusion of instruction among the poor; and from the
criminal indifference and negligence of the protest
ant established church; there is a growing desire in
the Roman catholic peasantry of Ireland for the
education of their children.
The extent of papal tyranny, exercised by the Rom
ish priests, in Ireland," even now, in the nineteenth
century, may be inferred from the following fact.
Not long since, an action was brought before judge
Day, at the Cork assizes. The plaintiff was Dono
van, a baker ; the defendant, the Rev. Mr. O'Brien,
popish priest of Clonakilty.* A subscription had
been ordered by this priest, to build a popish chapel.
Donovan was required to contribute sixteen shillings
and sixpence; which he paid. He was afterwards
called upon for nine shillings more, which he also
paid, but said he was very poor, and could not af
ford it. Soon after, the priest demanded sixteen shil
lings, which Donovan refused to pay. On going to
mass, the following Sunday, O'Brien asked if he would
pay the sixteen shillings; he answered, he was not
able. " Then," .quoth the priest, " I will settle you."
.,, Donovan, terrified at this threat, sent, by his wife,
sixteen shillings to O'Brien, who then refused to take
less than two guineas. On the next Sunday, the
„ # priest cursed, from the altar, all who had not paid Ms
%

CURE OF SOULS. 265
demands for building the chapel. Donovan went on
the next holy-day to mass, and was formally excom
municated, and the people denounced as cursed and
contaminated, if they should deal, or hold any com
munication with him. This menace was so effectual,
that not one of the country people would sell a sod of
turf to Donavan, to heat his oven, and he was unable
to sell his flour on hand. Reduced to despair by his
forlorn situation, he went to the chapel in a white
sheet, and asked pardon of God and the priest, for
his disobedience. O'Brien ordered him to come to
his house, where he again demanded two guineas.
But Donovan had no means of raising the money ; —
the excommunication was continued in full force;
and he was obliged to shut up his house. The jury
"gave Donovan a verdict of fifty pounds damages.
The protestant episcopal state clergy of Ireland
have, by their conduct, so well proved the position
assumed, of the necessity of a national church esta
blishment, to promote piety, and prevent heathenism,
that now, after the experiment has been in full ope
ration nearly three hundred years, popery and pa
ganism have been positively doubled, and relatively
quadrupled ; while protestantism has proportionally
declined. In justice, however, to the Hibernian state
church, it must be acknowledged, that, during these
three centuries, its clergy have been very punctual
in exacting their tithes, and every other source of
ecclesiastical revenue. They, doubtless, believing,
that they have the cure, without the care of souls ; as
some physicians have the care, without the cure, of
bodies. The Christian Observer for February, 1822, shows,
that England herself, is in no enviable condition, with.
regard to religion and morals, even at this advanced
period of her national career; and after having en
joyed for so long a series of ages, all the benefits of a
state church establishment.
In the Review of pamphlets on the infidelity of the
times, and of Dr. Chalmers's Civic Economy, the
34

266 FORMAL CHURCH PREACHING.
Christian Observer states— that a very considerable
portion of English publications, for the last three or
four years, has consisted of sermons, tracts, essays,
reports of societies, magazines, and miscellaneous
pamphlets, issued in consequence of the late alarm
respecting the increase of infidelity and blasphemy.
The recent public alarm has, indeed, abated, but the
causes of English infidelity still remain. And the ra-.
dical newspapers and pedlar's packs, still continue
to scatter the seeds of impiety arid rebellion, over
all, even the remotest, corners of the country.
The Rev. J. Ramsay, of Scotland, in examin
ing the causes of the prevailing infidelity, attributes
it, in the first place, to the depravity of the human
heart. A real, fundamental cause of unbelief, in
every age ; but which, the Christian Observer ac
knowledges, is too little considered by many, who pro
fess to be exceedingly shocked at the recent explo
sions of infidelity. Whence, a list of cold argu
ments, in favour of the Gospel, is uttered from the
press or pulpit ; as if only the understanding, and
not the heart, were concerned in the production, of
infidel opinions. Such arguments do little or nothing
towards eradicating the evil. If the established
clergy mean to banish infidelity from their parishes,
they must go far deeper.
They must, however unfashionable and startling it
may be to all clerical formalists, preach the Scrip
tural, the reformed, the protestant, the Anglican
Church doctrine of conversion ; must show their
hearers plainly, and affectionately, their awfully
lapsed condition by nature; the enormity and guilt
of their offences before God ; and the indispensable
necessity of a real, radical transformation in the
spirit of their minds. There are few theoretical infi
dels, especially among the poor, where such points of
evangelical truth have been duly impressed upon
their consciences. The meagre, tame, formal, half
Christianity,, which is always lingering upon the
threshold of elements, and evidences, of order and

INFIDELITY  SEDITION. 267
ordinances; instead of beginning with conversion,
and going on to perfection ; leaves the mind open
and unguarded, to every infidel suggestion.
The preachers who either deny, or keep back the
Scripture doctrine of human depravity, and original
sin, do, in effect, help forward the scheme of infidelity.
It is incumbent upon the English state clergy to
learn* how essentially necessary is a knowledge of
the extent of man's natural corruption, to the right
inculcation, even of the most common moral virtues.
Every evil being thus traced to its true source, the
value and appropriateness of the Scripture reme
dies would be more fully felt ; and, as with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, with the heart
would every minister begin, both in urging the truth,
'and in enforcing the spirit of Christianity.
Another cause of the present prevailing infidelity,
is stated to be the extensive circulation of irreligious
and seditious publications. Infidelity and rebellion
are natural companiqns. Bible Christians are not apt
to be disturbers of civil government. Hone, in his
parodies, struck, alike, at the religion and the policy
of England. And so, throughout the whole mass of
blasphemous and seditious publications, lately
steaming their hot infection from the British press,
the principles of duty to God arid to temporal rulers,
were indiscriminately assailed ; and the book that
inculcates them, was reviled and ridiculed. True
Christians, they found, could not be seditious, in ac-
. cordance with their professed principles ; and the
religious part of the poor was proof against all incite
ments to rebellion. The business of the English in
fidels, therefore, was to endeavour to put down the
Bible; as preparatory to their subversion of the
British government.
Christianity has been always assailed, ever since
its first promulgation ; but, of late years the opposi
tion to it has been more injurious, because it has
been spread over a larger surface. ^ It is no longer
confined to men of education, and soi disant philo-

268 ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
sophers ; but infidelity now appeals to the passions
of the populace, and labours to array the physical
against the moral force of nations. The antichris-
tian efforts of the French infidels are well known ;
and the contagion spread into Germany, and other
parts of continental Europe; and plays, novels,
scientific journals, periodical publications, and child
ren's books, were all pressed into the service of infi
delity. In England, also, sedition and irreligion have
had their numerous, and most audacious advocates,
from Thomas Paine down to Carlile.
Another cause of the prevailing modern infidelity,
in Scotland, Mr. Ramsay states to be, the defective
religious and moral education of the poor. He says :
the higher classes are trained up in the fear of G >d ;
and taught good morals, and an abhorrence of im
piety and revolution. We presume, this must be at
home, under the parental roof; for the Scottish col
leges, and higher seminaries, bave not been very re
markable, of late years, for inculcating the principles
and precepts of Christianity.
But, however it may -be in Scotland, the bigher
classes in England, are not so well instructed in reli
gion, even as the half educated poor. Very few of
the sons of the English nobility and gentry, at the
great academical institutions, could contend success
fully, upon the elemental points of Christianity, with
the children of their father's tenants and labourer?,
at a well conducted national school. And be it re
membered, that these great academical institutions ,
are, altogether, under the control and guidance of the
established Anglican Church clergy ; who find their
way from these seminaries, into the high benefices
and bishoprics of the establishment ; or, sometimes,
unite in their own persons the academic masterships
and the church dignities; as, for example, Dr. Hunt
ingford is, at once, warden of Winchester college,
and lord bishop of Hereford.
The romantic fondness acquired for the civil and
ecclesiastical establishments of England, at her pub-

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 269
lie seminaries, is often far removed from an humble
and ingenuous reception of the Gospel, as the rule
of faith and practice. In most of the large English
schools, whether for rich or poor, religious knowledge,
not duty, is the object of instruction. A momentous
consideration, now, that so large, and continually in
creasing a portion of the British population, is under
the process of elementary education ; for on the
character of this wide spread education, depends its
good or evil. For the poor to be able universally to
read, is not, necessarily, a benefit to themselves or
others. The result must depend upon the way in
which knowledge is acquired ; upon the principles
inculcated, and the habits formed, during its ac
quirement; and upon the ends to which it is directed.
To knoiv, as a mere fact, who was Jesus Christ,
will no more moralize, or Christianize the human
soul, than to know who was Pharaoh, or Nebuchad
nezzar. A religious education, the exigence of
these, nay, of all times, demands. Whence, the im
mense importance of Sunday schools. The Chris
tian Observer cites with approbation, some empha
tic passages from a little pamphlet, lately published
by the committee of the Sunday school society for
Ireland. These passages fully prove, in spite of all
the objections urged by the formal enemies to Sun
day schools, in the English and Irish state church es
tablishments, how much benefit these institutions
have, already, actually conferred upon the population
of those countries.
An education, of which religion is not the basis,
only prepares the soil for the worst seed, and the
growth of a poisonous crop, baneful to man, and of
fensive to God. A truly Christian education, such
as is, generally, the substratum and the summit of
Sunday school instruction, is the best possible, nay,
the only guarantee, for the principles,, the morals, and
the good conduct, of the rising generation ; amidst
the many dangers, to which they are constantly ex
posed, in an age of free opinions* and under the in-

270 BRITISH GOVERNMENT.
fluence of a licentious press, perpetually inculcat
ing infidel notions, and a revolutionary spirit.
After examining some other causes, assigned by
Mr. Ramsay, for the present alarming prevalence of
infidelity and profligacy, in Britain, the Christian Ob
server asks the following pithy, and pertinent ques
tions. Have our legislative and executive bodies been al
together free from blame ? Has all been done, that
might have been done, in these quarters, to check the
progress of infidel and immoral principles ? Have
new churches been built equal to the increased
wants of the population ; or sufficient facilities and
inducements afforded for building them ? Have the
public patrons, of lay, and still more, of ecclesiastical
preferment, been sufficiently attentive to making their
appointments an active check to the prevailing evils ;
and particularly, by nominating to the cure of souls,
such men only as have deeply at heart, the eternal
interests of mankind ?
Has due care been taken to rescind every public
law, or regulation, that tends to demoralize the peo
ple ? Are the numerical items of our customs and
excise deemed of less moment than the sober and
virtuous habits of the community ? Is the increase
of the revenue by lotteries, dram-shops, and other
polluted sources, felt by our public men, to be, as it
is, a curse, not a blessing to the nation ? Has the
sleepless vigilance of parliament contrived and en
forced adequate measures, for giving the whole mass
of the people a plain Christian education ? or, are
many of them still left, as to all preventive legislative
remedies, to the unmitigated influence of infidel and
other mischievous publications ? Have our poor
laws, and our laws respecting various moral offences,
been duly investigated, with reference to their bear
ing upon the principles and character of the people ?
But we forbear to press our queries.
The Christian Observer cites a splendid paragraph
from Dr. Chalmers, in praise of the erudition of the

LEARNED CLERGY. 271
English church ; to the justice of which we most cor
dially assent; because we fully believe, that, as a
body, a more learned community has not appeared in
Christendom, than the Anglican state clergy have
shown themselves to be, ever since the blessed era
of the Reformation, to the present hour. The Chris.-
tian Observer adds some able remarks on the im
portance of a learned clergy, and on the high theolo
gical claims of the English church ; in which we
mainly coincide. The following passages are re
commended to the attention of the serious reader.
.. We know of no church which has equal claims, as
far as the exterior defences of religion are concerned.
Nor has she rendered less assistance to the right ex
position and interpretation of Scripture. Her form
ularies are, perhaps, the best human exposition of
Scripture ; exhibiting the strictest regard to truth,
and the most marked spirit of moderation ; an ex
position, which casts debatable points into the
shade, and gives the highest prominence to the un-
debated principles of Christianity ; and* consequent
ly, supplies a common ground, on which opposing par
ties may meet, and proceed forth, in the whole arm
our of God, to contend with the common enemies
of their faith.
And if there has been, as we are bound to admit, a
painful abandonment of these formularies, by many in
dividuals ; there have not been wanting, at any time,
and especially now there are not wanting, a large
body of churchmen, true to the spirit and temper of
the illustrious parent, frorii whose lips they draw the
lessons of life ; and under whose banner they go
forth to conflict with the world, the flesh, and the
powers of darkness.
May the great Head of the church be graciously
pleased to augment the number of these evangelical
ministers in the Anglican establishment ; which never
more needed the services of such men, than at this.
trying crisis of her career.
The Christian Observer, in the midst of his eulo
gies upon the erudition of the church of England,

272 CONVERTED MINISTRY'.
does not forget, that piety must ever precede mere
learning in all Christian efficacy and benefit. He
considers it scarcely a matter of discussion, whether
a converted be not infinitely more useful than an uncon
verted ministry. Very few unconverted persons ever
preach the truth at all. And, even where doctrinally
correct, a want of earnestness and feeling character
izes their labours, and diffuses itself, by sympathy,
over their hearers Besides, the lives of such preach
ers generally tend to neutralize or vitiate their rea
sonings. Above all, it is only to the honest, simple,
believing minister of the word ; to the preacher, de
voutly seeking the assistance of the Holy Spirit, that
any promise of such assistance is made ; and it is
therefore, on his ministry alone, it can be expected
ordinarily to fall.
The success of a hypocritical, formal ministry, is
an exception, not a rule. The success of the true
prophet is the rule, not the exception. If, therefore,
the question be proposed, whether more is to be ex
pected froni learned indifference, or unlettered piety, in
a minister; we no more hesitate to decide for the
latter, than to prefer the fishermen of Galilee to the
council of Trent.
Dr. Chalmers calls upon the Wesleyan methodists
to adopt the local system, and carry the Gospel into
every alley and cottage of Britain. And the Chris
tian Observer admits, that the light and disposable
force of that body supplies extraordinary facilities
for such an enterprize ; nay would carry on the Cos-
sac warfare proposed, better than would the heavy
armed troops of the Anglican establishment. Rather
than the work of moral reform, among the millions
in Britain, now without any means of instruction,
should continue to be neglected, we heartily desire to
see it in the hands of the methodists, or of any other
body, who will supply the state church's kick of
service. If it be not done by the establishment, perhaps no
body would do it better than the Wesleyans. The
strictness of their discipline, their rigid system of in-

E%NDON CRIMINALS. *'273
spection, their singular facilities of selecting the in
dividuals best suited to the work; seem to consti
tute them, if the established church hangs back, suit
able agents for so extensive an undertaking. But the
business of locality ought to be taken up, in good ear
nest, by the national church; of whose formularies
few complain, and the revival of Whose discipline all
desire. The Christian Observer implores the An
glican Chureh to awake from her sleep of ages ; and to
gb forth for the recovery of her people from the
depths of vice and ignorance, into which they have
sunk: The existing condition of the country, more espe
cially of its immense metropolis, cannot be contem
plated without horror. Ten thousand individuals have
passed through a few principal prisons of London,
in* one single year. Myriads of children, in its courts
and alleys, subsist altogether upon depredation. Hun
dreds of thousands, in spite of all the laudable exer
tions of the national, and other benevolent societies,
are sft'// destitute of Christian education. Crime has
so mastered the existing means of improvement, that
its circle continually widens, and deepens, on every
side. The race of benevolence after sin and misery,
is, at the present moment, that of the tortoise after the
hare. If the English people now, in the nineteenth cen
tury be so irreligious and immoral, as thus repre
sented by theOhristian Observer; is it not conclu
sive, that the great body of the established clergy
have been long, and are now, grossly negligent in thq
discharge of their all-important duties; have long
been, and are now, any thing but faithful, zealous,
efficient, evangelical preachers, and pastors ? The
facts and observations would apply still more'fordibly
to the conduct of the state clefgy in Ireland. ' Scot-
larid is directed by an ecclesiastical establishment,
on a smaller and a simpler scale, less splendid, less
impbifrig, less expensive, less burdensome to the
communitv, than the; 'Anglican "and Hffierpiari hie-

274 CHURCH NEGLIGENCE.
rarchies ; with what effect, in promoting piety, and
preventing heathenism, may be the subject of future
inquiry. Is such an alarming state of irreligion and immoral
ity, as now pervades England, a proof of the position
assumed by Mr. Wilks, Mr. Wilberforce, Dr. Chal
mers, the Christian Observer, and many other dis
tinguished writers ; that a state church is absolutely
necessary to preserve religion alive in a country ; and
to prevent its inhabitants from degenerating into pa
gan darkness and idolatry ?
In these United States, where no national church
establishment exists, we certainly have no such wide
ly spread infidelity and profligacy as, issuing from
Hone, Cobbet, Carlile, and their disciples and fol
lowers, continually threaten to lay in blood and ruins
all that is venerable and valuable in the British em
pire ; and must, eventually, so destroy it, unless
checked by a counter current of pure, evangelical
piety. For mere legislative enactments, however
seconded by fine, or imprisonment, or the gallows,
or a formal, secular state clergy, slumbering in monk
ish apathy, and gowned ease, over the moral desola
tion of their country ; can never do aught to reform
a corrupted and rebellious people.
Let the eleven thousand places of worship in the
Anglican Church establishment, be filled with evan
gelical incumbents ; let the stalls, and dignities, and
palaces be filled with evangelical deans, and bishops,
and archbishops ; all faithfully discharging their sa
cred duties, as ministers of the everlasting Gospel;
and England will soon be freed from all alarm re
specting the infidelity and profligacy, which now
menace the speedy perdition of all her civil institu
tions, and social order.
Let it be remembered, likewise, that all this wick
edness belongs emphatically to the establishment.
It constitutes an integral part of the state church,
which claims the whole nation as her own, excepting
only those individuals, who, under the shelter of the

CHURCH CHARACTER. 275
toleration act, enrol themselves as members of some
dissenting communion. But no evangelical dissent
ers will receive into their body any infidel, or immo
ral person ; and if any member of their churches be
come immoral or infidel, he is forthwith expelled from
their community, and returns into the mass of the
nation, to furnish his quota towards forming the gene
ral character of the English protestant episcopal
church, by law established.
Accordingly, the parliamentary divorce bills are not
obtained by the evangelical dissenters of England,
whether presbyterian, or congregational, or method-
ist, or baptist; but they are procured, in countless
numbers, by the noble and the gentle, the titled and
the untitled patrons, protectors, and supporters of the
Anglican Church establishment. And so, of other
flagitious crimes, as theft, robbery, rebellion, forgery,
murder, conspiracy, assassination ; these do not find
their perpetrators and abettors, among the dissent
ing evangelicals ; but among the stanch members of
the church of England ; who, while they are convuls
ing society to its centre, by their crimes and villanies,
rail against separatists, and sectaries, and schisma
tics, with all the rancour of a formal bishop.
No; a nation is not evangelized by a secular slate
church, but by real, vital Christianity ; not Chris
tianity corrupted and darkened by popish supersti
tion, or diluted and debased by cold-blooded, heart
less philosophism, or interwoven with national es^
tablishments for political purposes ; but Christianity
as taught in the New Testament, and practised by
the faithful followers of their Lord and Master.
Doubtless, the outward profession of nominal
Christianity, is, in numberless instances, adopted by
worldly men, nay, by determined infidels, to forward
their own schemes of policy. Finding the bulk of
the people inclined to the Christian religion, under
some particular form of church order, or discipline ;
they deem it political wisdom, to give this particular
sect a state establishment, and to allow its clergy a

276 CHURCH PATRONS.
share in the civil government. Hence, religion is
converted into a mere engine of state policy ; and
the established church, as a matter of course, fill
ed with a formal, secular, irreligious, persecuting
clergy. The politician may plume himself upon his own
sagacity and skill ; and the clergy may be delighted
with their worldly honours, and their immense reve
nues ; and the people themselves may be so unedu
cated, and so ignorant, as to receive churchmanship
in lieu of Christianity; but deep and deadly gashes
are inflicted upon pure and undefiled religion.
Hence,* the church, at an early period, ceased to be
the bride of Christ ; and became the mother of har
lots, the established protector and promoter of all ini-
quityj and abomination. Whatever good may be done
in such communities, is done, not in consequence, but
in spite of their ecclesiastical establishments ; is done
by pious individuals, acting in direct contradiction,
if not in open opposition, to the whole course and
current of the state church.
A large proportion of every nation, if it suits their
temporal convenience, adopt the prevailing religion;
or, in other words, have no personal religion. More
especially, the courts and cabinets of kings and
princes, notwithstanding Christianity may have been
the established religion of the land, have been gene
rally filled by a far greater proportion of mere world
ly formalists, if not of open and avowed infidels, than
of evangelical Christians ; and, in consequence, the
public measures, both of state and church, have tak
en a corresponding direction. Nobility, arid gentry,
and courtiers, and politicians, are very apt to consi
der religion^ as an affair quite beneath' the consider
ation of their rank, and wealth,* and ' fashion, and
wisdom; as a matter* suited only to the poor* and
vulgar, and uninstructed,' and ignorant. They, there
fore, either absent themselves altogether from pub
lic worship; or, only attend on state occasions, to
save appearances towards the national church esta-

RECAPITULATION. 277
blishment, of whose patronage they are themselves
the great proprietors ; and whose bishoprics and
benefices they allot as easy and splendid provisions
for the younger branches of their own families.
It cannot fail, whenever any particular Christian
denomination is adopted by the secular government,
as the established state sect, but that numbers of un
principled, wicked men, will profess themselves stout
members of the dominant communion ; and help to
corrupt and degrade its, character. Hence the pure
Gospel scheme is thrust aside, to make way for some
more accommodating, worldly system ; the holy pre
cepts of Christian morality are lowered to the, cor
rupt standard of ordinary practice; and the worship
and ordinances of Christ are debased by supersti
tion, and modelled to suit the prevailing views, of
political rulers* Thus Judaism was corrupted by
the formal pharisees ; and Christianity overlaid by
the papal hierarchy.
. To sum up. the whole of the preceding argument,
in a few words; ^"Christianity, during the first three
centuries of its existence* spread, on all, sides, and
flourished ; not only without the aid, but against the
determined hostility and persecution of the secular
igovernment; and if, after it was welded into the
state it became carnal and corrupted; if, to. use the
words of one of the foremost of all living divines, the
policy of Constantine, which secularized her form ;
his profusion; which corrupted her virtue ; and the
meretricious attire, which banished her modesty,
prepared her for rapid infidelities to her Lord, and
.for her final prostitution to the Man of Sin ; and if
from the fifth century may be dated that career of
^harne, which, particularly in ,the western empire,
Ishe ran, with wild incontinence, through the night
of the dark ;ages, until she, was branded ifrom
above, as the mother of harlots and -abominations of the
earth. . . » , ,
if, after the experiment* during. the long period, of
nearly three hundredyears, of a protestant episco
pal state church, Ireland is now more heathenish, 'and

278 RECAPITULATION.
more popish, than in the time of Elizabeth — if, after
the same protracted length of experiment, in England;
there* be more evangelical religion and vital piety out
of, than in the national church establishment— if the
Anglican state church has always been, to the ex
treme extent of her power, a persecuting church ; per
secuting the dissenters without mercy and without
measure, so long as the cruel and iniquitous enact
ments of her legitimate heads, and sanctimonious
pontiffs, Elizabeth, and the four Stuarts, permitted;
and, now that the toleration act of William rescues
the nonconformists from her fangs, persecuting by
suspension, by calumny, by famine, the evangelical
clergy within the pale of her own communion.
And finally, if, during the period of the Anglican
church establishment's greatest power and influence,
to wit, from the restoration of the infamous and exe
crable Charles, down to the middle of the eighteenth
century, infidelity and profligacy were constantly
widening their horrible circle in Britain; — and if the
English state church has always laboured, and does
now labour, incessantly, to oppose, and crush every
revival of pure, undefiled, Scriptural Christianity, in
her own bosom, and among her own children ; how
do her advocates prove the necessity of a national
church establishment, in order to promote piety and
prevent paganism in a country ?
Nay, but the voice of universal history, and of all
human experience, proclaims, in the loudest and
most intelligible language, that it is very possible to
have a national church establishment, without reli
gion ; as it is quite certain a people may have reli
gion, without a national church establishment. And
the irresistible inference is, that if evangelism be
flourishing in England, it flourishes there not in con
sequence, but in spite of her established church. In
like manner as if the British empire be flourishing in
its agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and gene
ral concerns, it flourishes in spile, and not in conse
quence, of her enormous public debt, and her most
oppressive burden of universal taxation.

CHAPTER II.
On- the Anglican Church Establishment.
, ' Perhaps the most extraordinary portion of Mr.
Wilks's book, is that in which he adduces the low
condition of religion in these United States, as, at
once, a proof and an illustration of his main posi
tion ; that a national church establishment is necessa
ry to preserve a Christian country from lapsing into
heathenism. In pages 78 — 83, of " Correlative claims and du
ties," Mr. Wilks says — that the case of the United
States of America, furnishes another strong negative
example on this subject. There is nothing like a
regular and adequate state provision for the Chris
tian ..instruction of the people in any part of the
Union ; and the effects of this deficiency are but too
visible in the languishing state of religion, in most
parts of that extensive territory. Yet even in the Unit
ed States themselves, partial legislative enactments,
in favour of religion, have been, from time to time,
found necessary ; which enactments, the civil magis
trate is bound to support, and the public purse to
carry into effect.
From, a table, drawn up a few years since, showing
the provision for religious instruction, in the states of
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con
necticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, De
laware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carqlina, Georgia, Vermont, and Kentucky, it ap-
peers, that ten out of fifteen of these states, have no
provision for the maintenance qf religious instruct^
ors ; but the other five have a partial, or full provi
sion. ^ ^Eight have no religious creed ; the others
use a formaj test; namely, three require a belief in

280 NECESSITY OF STATE CHURCH.
Gods; one, faith in the Gospel ; two, faith in the Old
and New Testaments ; four, faith in the protestant
religion. To this add, that chaplains are appointed for the
army and navy, and paid from the public purse ; and
strict orders are issued, under severe penalties, for'
the attendance and decent behaviour of the soldiers
at divine worship. Profane cursing and swearing
are also punishable. Thus the United States of
America, without verbally allowing of church esta
blishments, and though thinking it unconstitutional,
to speak of the Divine Providence, in their united
capacity, as some of the states may not acknowledge?
such a doctrine; yet have felt, in practice, the abso-*
lute necessity of acting upon some of the most con
tested principles, upon which national church esta
blishments are founded; and individual states have*
gone even further. »
That there is so little religion throughout the Union;
is not to be wondered at, when, in addition to other*
causes which have considerable influence, we recol-t
lect how scanty and parsimonious are the public •
means of instruction in almost every state; but that*
little would probably have been less, had there been
no publicly recognized means at all. r
But America is a new country ; and some years*
must elapse before the general effect of its presents
system can be fully developed. It is devoutly to be ;
hoped, that long before that period shall arrive, the
necessity of a church establishment will be sufficiently
felt among all classes, to induce the legislature to
carry into effect some adequate provision for that
purpose; if not on the higher ground of duty, as-;
Christians, and from an anxious concern for their ^
own souls, and those of their countrymen; yet, at
least, on the principles of political expediency, and
civil decorum.
It would be more difficult, than, perhaps, Mr.
Wilks irriagines, on such an assumption, to determine
which should be the dominant state sect. Certainly
it would not be the American-Anglo-Chiirch; and the

BRITISH REVIEW. 28i
political precedency could not easily be settled
among the presbyterians, congregationalists, method
ists and baptists.
Mr. Wilks cites the British Review of Mr. War
den's book, as materially aiding his own chief posi
tion. The Reviewer says : all our readers are aware,
that in the United States of America there is no es
tablished church ; but we are perfectly convinced,
that were they familiar with the real situation of that
extensive country, in regard to the means of Chris
tian knowledge, they would not approve of the expe
riment, of which these federated republics have set
the first example, of leaving that important concern
to the discretion or caprice of the multitude. In
some of the states, it is left entirely to the option of
the people, whether they shall have clergymen and
churches at all ; or whether, with the name of Chris
tians, they shall live like the rudest islander in the
Pacific ocean ; and it gives us pain to remark, that
in the southern parts of the Union, the Sabbath is
never sanctified by a large majority of the inhabit
ants ; and the rites of our most holy faith are scarcely
ever practised.
In the northern states, indeed, more attention ia
paid to the ordinances of religion. A tax, for the
support of a certain number of ministers and chapels,
is levied in all the New-England states, the amount
of which is divided among the several denominations
of Christians, according to the number of churches
which they keep open for public worship. Now, in
asmuch as this tax is compulsatory, it recognizes the
principle upon which establishments are founded;
namely, a power in the government to provide for
religious instruction and public worship ; a principle
completely at variance with Mr. Warden's maxim,
that religion is one of the natural wants of the hu
man mind ; and in an enlightened age requires no aid
from the civil magistrate.
Laissez nous- f aire, is a good rule for practical men,
who preside over manufacturing and commercial in-
36

2B2

AMERICAN RELIGION.

dustry ; but in reference to those grand institutions',
calculated to form the public mind, and implant mo
ral principles; to preserve the purity of our faith,
and to keep the soul true to its great Author ; it is
more prudent to be guided by experience, than by
any abstract theory of political economy. We are
borne out in this opinion by the real condition' of the
United States, in the matter of religion. We find in
Mr. Warden's own pages a statement, founded upon
some investigations and calculations of the Rev. Mr.
Beecher, which affords the melancholy intelligence,
that out of eight millions, the computed amount of the
American people, five millions of persons are destitute
of competent religious instruction.
Assuming that there ought to be a clergyman for
every thousand souls, the proportion in Great Britain
is one minister to eight or nine hundred souls, (not in
the established, or state churches,) Mr. Beecher as
sures us, that in Massachusetts there is a deficiency
of one hundred and seventy-eight competent reli
gious teachers. In Maine, only half the population
is supplied with religious instruction. In New-
Hampshire, the deficiency is one-third. Vermont is
nearly in the same situation. In the western parts
of Rhode Island, embracing a territory fifty miles
long, and thirty broad, and including half the popu
lation, there is but one regularly educated minister;
and but ten in the other parts.
In Connecticut, out of two hundred and eighteen
congregational churches, thirty-six are vacant; and
of all other denominations, sixty-eight are vacant.
In New-York the actual number of pastors is about
five hundred ; its population of a million requires
double that number. In New-Jersey there is a defi
ciency of at least fifty pastors. In Pennsylvania and
Delaware, the deficiency is very considerable, Vir
ginia, with a population of 974,000, has but sixty
regular ministers ; consequently nine hundred and
fourteen thousand persons are without adequate reli
gious instruction. The situation of Maryland is si-

t>r, beecher's calculations. 283
wiilar to that of Virginia. North Carolina, with a.
population of 555,500, requiring 550 clergymen, has
but twenty. South Carolina, which, with a popula
tion of 400,000, ought to have 400 pastors, has but
thirty-six. The state of Georgia has but ten clergy
men. So far Mr: Wilks and the British Review. It is,
to be sure, an unquestionable verity, that Dr. Beech
er has given a v^ry doleful view of the condition
of religion in these United States. And, from his as
sumptions, the reverend calculator concludes, that
unless some effectual effort be made to diffuse the
light of Christianity throughout the Union, by the
time we have seventy millions of people, sixty-four
millions of them will be without any religious ordi
nances. In consequence of which, all the best po
litical institutions of the country, will fall an easy
sacrifice to the corrupt preponderance of infidel
votes; those people being the worst of all abandon
ed profligates, who live in a Christian community,
but live in the habitual neglect, ..contempt, and re
jection of the Gospel.
Of this last position there can be no doubt. But
a large deduction is to be made from Dr. Beecher's
calculations ; so far, at least, as relates to their fa
tal augury for the future. He counts only regular
clergy ; all the rest go for nothing with him. By
regular clergy, however, he does not intend, as do
our high church formalists, to designate merely the
episcopal priesthood, for this profound and celebrat
ed Connecticut divine, is himself a stout congrega
tionalist: but such only, as have been regularly
trained to the ministry of reconciliation, at some
academic institution, or college ; whether at Har
vard, Princeton, Yale, or elsewhere.
Now, within the limits of this calculation are not
included all, even of the independent, presbyterian,
and episcopal clergy, throughout the Union. And
they do not comprehend any of the three thousand
irregular baptist preachers ; the one thousand travel-

284 PROPORTION OF AMERICAN CLERGY.
ling, and the four thousand local preachers, among
the methodists ; both of whom, as religious bodies,
preach the Gospel faithfully and successfully, -to the
conversion and salvation of sinners ; the baptists, as
Calvinists ; the methodists, as Arminians. Deduct
the services of all but college bred ministers in En
gland, and the religion of that country will be in a
very small way. The clergy of all arms, in the Unit
ed States, may be thus counted, in round numbers :
American-Anglo-Church, or protestant epis
copal, 300
Presbyterian, since their late junction, 1,300
Congregational, or independent, 1 ,600
Baptist, chiefly, particular, some general, 3,000
Methodist, travelling preachers, 1 ,000
local preachers, 4,000
All other denominations, including papists, 600
Total of American clergy in 1822, 11,800
Say eleven thousand eight hundred, which gives
more than one clergyman to every thousand souls,
even computing the population of the United States
at ten millions. The established clergy of England
and Wales, are about eleven thousand ; at least, the
number of parishes is ten thousand ; and the places
of public worship in the state establishment are ele
ven thousand. What amount of supernumerary
clerks, not attached to any cure, or place of wor
ship, may exist in the Anglican Church, 1 know not ;
but they, surely, do nothing to evangelize the people ;
to impart to them religious instruction ; to promote
piety, and prevent heathenism, in Britain. And by
the whole aggregate number of these supernumera
ries, do all the preceding facts and observations,
showirig the criminal indifference, and negligence, of
the English established clergy, as to the discharge
of their religious duties and obligations, apply with
proportionally greater force'.
The population of England and Wales is rather
more than twelve millions ; averaging less than one

THEIR GENERAL CHARACTER. 285
state clergyman to each thousand souls. Indeed, by
adding the dissenting ministers, eleven thousand
clergy more may be joined to those in the establish
ment;: giving twenty-two thousand religious teach
ers to twelve millions of people, or one minister to
five or six hundred souls. But the.formal high church
men do not allow any of these nonepiscopal miljis-
trations to be valid or regular. They are all unau
thorized and uncovenanted. Nevertheless, there is
no assignable proportion between the evangelical
labours of the whole aggregate of the dissenting and
the established clergy ; nor between the total amount
of practical piety and moral conduct, in their re
spective congregations. •
Without intending to institute any invidious com
parison, or to lean unnecessarily against the charac
ter and conduct of the English national clergy, 1 may
be permitted to observe, that none of the American
ministers, not even the most formal of them all, live
the secular life, or wear the worldly appearance which
designate so large a portion of the reverend clerks,
in the English state church establishment. In this
country we have none of those ministers, one half
'squire, and the other half not clerical ; horse-jockeys,
gamblers, sportsmen, dancers, drinkers, profane
swearers, and the like ; men who live the life, and
die the death, of mere ungodly worldlings.
The American clergy do not mix up secular em
ployments with their professional occupations ; they
are neither yeomanry captains, nor commissioners of
excise, nor country justices. They are all at least
decorous in their exterior deportment ; and a very
large majority of them preach, faithfully and effect
ually, the distinguishing doctrines of the Cross ; the
evangelical doctrines of the Reformation ; and enjoy,
most deservedly, a very high degree of influence, in the
respect and attachment of the community at large ;
and more especially, of their own congregations and
churches.

286

ANGLICAN CLERGY.

Now, this cannot be said, in respect to the generality
of the English state clergy ; the great body of whom
neither preach the Gospel, nor possess the respect
of the community, nor enjoy the affection of their
parishioners ; from whom, indeed, they receive little
else save tithes and execrations. Hence, throughout
the United States, pure, evangelical religion is much
more generally diffused, than in the English church
establishment ; and the standard of morals is higher.
We have, in proportion to our population, much less
infidelity and profligacy ; fewer divorces, robberies,
murders, tumults, insurrections and assassinations,
than are to be found among the legitimate members,
and stotttest supporters of the Anglican and Hiber
nian national church establishments.
The American-Anglo-Church herself has, at length,
followed the example of other religious denomina
tions, and established a general theological seminary,
for the instruction of her divinity students. An ac
count of the origin and progress of this school of the
ology, would furnish an interesting and instructive
chapter in the history of religion, in these United
States : sed nunc, non est his locus. It is to be
hoped, that, in future, the American-Anglo-Church
will, as much as possible, guard alike against all
diocesan usurpation and division ; and move onward
to its great object, as one united community, acting
in universal concert for ecclesiastical purposes.
The other principal religious denominations in the
United States, are all making conjoined efforts to for
ward the course of the Gospel; more especially, by
promoting the cultivation of evangelical theology.
For example, the congregationalists have a very
flourishing, and munificently endowed, theological
seminary at Andover, in Massachusetts; the me
thodists, one in the western part of the state of New-
York; the baptists have instituted a divinity college
at Washington, in the district of Columbia; the
Dutch church has a school of the prophets at Bruns-

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 287
tvick* in New-Jersey ; the presbyterians have a the
ological hall at Princeton, also in Jersey. In May,
1 82 1, the general assembly of the presbyterians, and
the general synod of the associate reformed church,
passed a resolution, uniting the judicatories of the
two churches, and joining the associate theological
school in the city of New-York, to the presbyterian
seminary at Princeton. This resolution was con
firmed in May, 1822; and these two important evan
gelical bodies are now consolidated into one gene
ral communion. Mr. Wilks himself acknowledges,
that the English state clergy have no regular theolo
gical education.
To all this, add the felicitous harmony of many of
the nonepiscopalian evangelical churches ; as the
presbyterian, the Dutch, and the congregational; in
exchanging pulpits, in meetings for prayer and Chris
tian conference, .in missionary institutions, in Bible
societies, in Sunday school associations, in the dis
tribution of religious tracts; in a word, their cordial
union in every effort to promote the blessed progress
of evangelism; both among their own. fellow-citi
zens, and the perishing millions of the heathen, in
foreign, and far distant lands.
The apostolic William Ward, in his "Farewell
Letters," bears his full and decided testimony to the
exertions, and religious harmony of evangelical
Christians, in these United States. He says : the
number of religious institutions in America, exceeds, if
possible, those of England.
Observe, Mr. Ward does not confine these religious
institutions to a comparison, in number with those
of the Anglican Church establishment ; but includes
all denominations in England, dissenters, as well as
churchmen. Now, although Mr. Ward's assertion is
strictly true, yet it is taking stronger ground, than is
required by my present argument ; which has merely
to combat the assumed necessity of a national church
establishment, to promote piety, and prevent hea
thenism in a country. For, most assuredly, the es-

288 OTHER INSTITUTIONS.
tablished church of England cannot claim the merit
of promoting that dissenting piety, which, as a state
church, she has, invariably, calumniated, and perse
cuted, to the utmost of her power.
Mr. Ward proceeds to say : that Bible, Missionary,
Tract, and Sunday school societies, are very nume
rous. The American Bible Society is a noble insti
tution, doing great good. The orphan asylum, at
New- York, has been favoured with such remarkable
instances of the Divine care, as to remind one very
strongly of the institution of professor Frank, in
Germany. The deaf and dumb asylum, at Hartford,
Connecticut, under the care of the Rev. Mr. Gal-
laudet, prospers exceedingly. I spent some hours at
the asylum, enjoying a flow of feelings so sacred, and
so refined, that I can never lose the recollection of
this visit.
Regular prayer meetings, confined to females, are
very common in America ; which has, also, some in
stitutions that I have not heard of in other countries.
At Boston, and at other places, a missionary for the
town and neighbourhood is maintained and employ
ed ; his work is to carry the Gospel to the poor ; to
preach in cellars, in garrets, and amongst those who,
by their poverty, or peculiar circumstances, or dis
inclination, are excluded from the public means of
grace. I met two or three of these interesting mis
sionaries. Societies of ladies exist for assisting poor Chris
tian students, by purchasing cloth, and making them
clothes. Other ladies unite to work together, one
day in a week, fortnight, or month, devoting the pro
duce to some good object. One of the parties reads
for the edification of the rest. Separate societies, of
girls and boys, are numerous ; they have their meet
ings, and devote a quarter, half, or whole dollar a
year, each, to some Christian object. In Mr. Pay-
son's church, at Portland, a number of married fe
males have associated, under a solemn engagement,
that the survivors will seek the spiritual good of the

HARMONY-=-REVIVALS  MISSIONS. 289
children, from whom any mother in this association
may be removed, by death.
The different denominations in this country come
together in delightful harmony, and co-operate, with
out the obstruction of those impediments, which ex
ist in other countries. The Sunday School Union in
New- York, exhibits a noble specimen of true Chris
tian feeling ; and flourishes accordingly. I fqund
more places of worship in the large towns in America,
than in similar towns in Britain, (including both es
tablished and dissenting churches,) and much genu
ine piety among the presbyterians, the congrega-
tionalists, the evangelical episcopalians, the method
ists, and the baptists ; and, as far as my journeying
extended, I observed a cheering exhibition of Chris
tian progress.
As in England, all denominations of real Christiana
.are increasing ; and all are growing better. The re
vivals in different sections of the Union are greater
than ever. I have made special inquiry into the na
ture of these revivals, and find, that the far greater
portion of those who commence a religious profession
under these impressions, continue till death to adorn
the doctrine of Divine influence.
Christian missions too, begin to be more and more
popular ; and the duty of the church to identify them
as an integral part of its institutions, begins to be
more generally felt and acknowledged in this highly
favoured country. What a cheering sight if was, on
the 9th of March, 1821, t© see coach and wagon
loads of missionaries coming into Princeton, on their
way to the Indians ! The wilderness and the soli
tary place shall be glad for them. And how still
more astonishing that these Indians should be made
willing to devote to the education of their children
all the dollars paid to them, in annual instalments,
for, lands, by the government of the United States,
Blessed be God ! the appearances' in all Christian
countries indicate, that we are rapidly passing into
a new order of things. Indeed, all the great events
37

290 PROGRESS OF UNITED STATES.
of oqr own times seem but the harbinger of his ap
pearance, who is the desire of all nations.
After visiting the states of New-York, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New-Hampshire, Maine, /\ew-Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, &c;, and the citie3 of New-
York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, I was
quite amazed at the progress of society in the United
States : these towns, these colleges, these courts of
justice, these scientific and benevolent institutions,
the extent of country cultivated!, these state govern
ments, this army, this navy, this powerful general
government ! Why, my dear brother, when I con
sidered that the other day this whole continent was
forest, the exclusive abode of half naked savages
and1 wild beasts ; all this scenery appeared before
me as the effect of enchantment. What a striking
contrast to the deathlike paucity of society among
the Indians on the same spot, during the preceding
five hundred years.
Ira passing through Connecticut, I could not but
observe, the country must be happy, in which the
poor can obtain the respectable education of their
children for nothing; where each man of good cha
racter, without regard to his sect, can become a le
gislator; where provisions are excedingly cheap;
where, except in particular towns, taxes are few ;
where there are no- tithes, nor the galled feelings aris
ing from the unwise elevation of one part of the peo
ple, on a religious account, over the other part ; and
where the people, (by their delegates and representa
tives, as in the legislature, whether state or general,)
as I had just seen them in Boston, meet in conven
tion, to amend the constitution of the state, with the
same good humour, as men go to the annual meeting
of the humane society in London. I saw several
baptist ministers in this convention; as well as
among the legislators of the state of Maine.
Religious services are conducted nearly as in En
gland ; but our custom of lining out the hymn scarce
ly exists ; and singing is often profanely abandoned

RELIGWUS SERVICES. 291
to the choir,- as though praise may be done by
proxy ; or the object of Christian worship be partial
to such tunes as the congregation cannot acquire.
How any one can blame cathedral worship as pop
ish, and admire these exhibitions in the front gallery,
I know not. Notes, entreating the prayers of the
congregation for the sick, &c, are, in many places,
sent up into the pulpit ; and directed by these notes,
the ministers visit the sick during the week.
Reading the Holy Scriptures does not commonly,
I regret to say, make a part of the (nonepiscopal)
services of the sanctuary. Dr. Watts, generally,
supplies the forms of praise to the American people.
There are some selections, the greater part, howe
ver, the composition of Watts, by Drs. Dwight,
Livingston, and Worcester, and Mr. Winchell.
American editions of Dr. Rippon's selection are not
uncommon. The reading of sermons prevails to a
considerable degree among the congregational, and
other ministers. The services are often concluded
with a doxology, the people standing. Blacks are
members of the same churches, and sit down to the
Lord's table with the whites.
Divine service seemed well attended in the states
I visited ; and among the presbyterians, congrega-
tionalists, and baptists, there are hut few instances
?of a dry, formal ministry ; though much of it still re-
^nains amongthe episcopalians. Among the baptists
4here is a considerable portion of that Calvinism,
which knows not how >to unite duty with sovereignty,
Obligation with privilege, watchfulness with perse
verance, and the necessity of prayer with divine in
fluence. A baptist church, practising open, or Chris
tian communion, I found not ; and one or two minis
ters did not hesitate to avow, that they did not con
sider pedobaptists within the pale .of the visible
church ! Is it not strange that the people, who still
loudly complain that the baptists were imprisoned,
and flogged, at Boston, should themselves act upon a

292 CHURCH UNITY.
sentiment so utterly, contrary to Christian forbear
ance and charity ?
The editor of the Christian Herald, for June,.! 822,
brings together the opinions of four truly Christian
divines, of four several denominations, in favour,
and in explanation of real, evangelical church unity?
to wit, an American- presbyterian, and an English
baptist, independent, and episcopalian, respect
ively. The Rev. Dr. Proudfit, a distinguished clergy
man among the American presbyterians, says : the
unity of the church does not consist in the attach
ment of all its members to the same visible commun
ion. It rather consists in the recognition of each
other, as brethren and sisters, in the same spiritual
family; in cherishing reciprocal affection; in es
teeming others better than ourselves ; in interchang
ing offices of kindness ; in ministering to the tempo
ral and spiritual comfort of each other, and walking
together, as opportunity offers, in all commandments
and ordinances of Jehovah.
Two professors may appertain to different sections
of the visible church, and yet, by loving one another,
by forbearing with the imperfections of each other,
by mingling occasionally in the exercises of divine
worship, private and public, must be considered, in
the most emphatic sense, as keeping the unity of the
spirit in the bond of peace. And two professors
may be connected with the same visible communion,,
and yet be alienated in heart,, be sundered in their
interests and aims, be defaming each other, and thus
be chargeable with rending the mystical body of
Christ. The bond of union to the former professors, is the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Head, who
dwells in his living members, of all countries and
ages, enlightening, and sanctifying, and supporting
them, and is lasting as eternity ; to the latter, the
only bond of union is the ecclesiastical pale, which

CHURCH UNITY. 293
encloses them ; and may be dissolved by the acci
dent of an hour.
The Christian Herald then cites other passages on
the same subject, from other quarters : not merely,
as he says, to show a kind and friendly disposition in
the representatives of four different denominations;
but also, to show how many are making the disco
very of a mystery, which, for ages, had not been
made known ; and, indeed, was as great a mystery,
as was, in still earlier ages, the predicted union of
the Gentiles with the Jews. Time brought to light,
in the days of the Apostles, a mystery hidden for
ages; and the Gentiles became the children of
Abraham, by love and faith ; without circumcisipn ;
without sacrifice; as unexpectedly, as gloriously.
So, each denomination has had the mystery of Chris
tian union, concealed from its prejudiced eye ; each has
expected, eventually, to embosom in her pale all the
rest ; but now, each begins to apprehend that mys
terious union, in which men agree to differ.
Mr. Ward, in one of his " Farewell Letters," says :
I am more than ever anxious to know no man after his
sect ; to know no man as an independent, an episco
palian, a presbyterian, a methodist, or a baptist. I
would say of every one who wears the image of
Christ* and contributes to improve the spiritual de-
sart around him, and of no one else ; the same is my
brother, and my sister, and mother. What a sad
thing, that while our Lord Jesus Christ loves his
people, because they bear Ms image ; the cause of
our attachment should be, that they belong to us.
I am told some episcopalians apologize for not en
gaging in foreign missions, by saying, it is unnecessa
ry for us to spend our strength in this work ; all must
come to us at last. I hear another say, I pray for the
success of those, who are ordained by the laying on
of the hands of the presbytery. A methodist is too
apt to conclude, that almost all the energy of piety
in the World is in his connexion. Another sect finds
every body of professing Christians so corrupt, that

1294 CHURCH UNITY.
they cannot aid any of them. The baptist* as he
walks through a town, points to the churches and
chapels, and says — all these are to become baptist
meeting houses ; Jesus Christ and his Apostles were
all baptists.
Now we see, at present, the kingdom of Christ
given to none of these exclusively ; and all will be dis
appointed ; and yet, not one atom of truth will be
-lost ; not one atom of error will be spared. The
world is not to be conquered by our favourite senti
ments, but by the spirit or mind of Jesus Christ in us;
the kingdom is to be given to the saints of the Most
High. The world is to be conquered, neither by ar
gument, nor by popular talents ; but by Christ, the
Christ on Calvary, in us ; by the energy of piety, of
Christian philanthropy ; that pities, that weeps, that
plunges into the thickest danger, to rescue the sink
ing. Does any sect wish to engross to itself the work
of renovating the world ? the only way is to engross
all the vital godliness in the world ; and then it will
succeed ; the Saviour seeketh such to serve him. -
The Rev. William Jay, a celebrated minister
among the English independents, in his remarks on
"the narrative of the Rev. John Clark, says : as the
subjects of Divine grace, under all the denominations
that distinguish us, we belong to one family ; and are
therefore much" more intimately related, than the vo
taries of any party can be united. If I am a real
Christian, whether an episcopalian, a dissenter, or a
methodist, I am your brother, in the highest sense
God himself affixes t© the term ; hence, you are not
at liberty to determine how you shall feel and behave
towards me ; you are bound to love me ; and without
this love, your religion is a dream.
If God has promised unity among his own followers,
we have reason to believe that it has been accom
plished. But we see men, equally led by the spirit of
God, and devoted to his will, differing .from each
other on numberless subjects. So it always has been,
and always will be. Religion is not injured by it ;

CHURCH UNITY. 295
nor has the Scripture spoken in vain. It never in-,
tended any thing more than unity with variety ; an
accordance in great, a difference in little things. If
communities or individuals pursue an uniformity of
opinions, ceremonies, discipline, forms and modes of
worship^ they first seek what is impossible ; for the at
tempt has been fairly made, and has proved useless;
men may as well be constrained or persuaded into
a uniformity of stature, complexion* temper.
And secondly, they seek what would be unprofit
able. The advantage lies in the present state of
things. The cultivation of such dispositions, and the
practice of such duties as the exercise of humility,
forbearance, self-denial, candour and brotherly love
implies, are far more valuable and useful than a duli,
stagnant conformity of notions or usages. It is awfully
possible to be very strenuous about the mint, anise
and cummin, and neglect the weightier matters of
the law ;^ to contend for the forms, while destitute of
the power of godliness.
Mr. Jay cites the late excellent John Newton, as
saying : the true unity of spirit is derived , from the
things in which those, who are taught and born of
God, agree ; and should not be affected by those in
which they differ. The church of Christ, collectively,
is an army; they serve under one prince, have one
common interest, and are opposed by the same ene
mies. This army is kept up, and the place of those
daily removed to the church triumphant, supplied,
entirety by those, who are rescued and wron from the
power of the adversary ; which is chiefly effected by
the Gospel ministry.
This consideration should remind ministers, that
it is highly improper to waste much time and talent,
which ought to be employed against the common foe,
in opposing those, whq, though they cannot exactly
agree with them in every smaller point, are perfectly
agreed, and ready to concur with them, in promoting
their principal design. When I see ministers of ac
knowledged piety and respectable abilities, very

296 EXCLUSIVE CHURCHMANSHIP.
busy in defending or confuting the smaller differ
ences, which already too much separate those, who
ought to be of one heart, and of one mind, though,
while they are fallible, they cannot be exactly of one
judgment; I give them credit for their good inten
tion, but cannot help lamenting the misapplication of
their zeal, which, if directed into another channel,
would probably make them much more successful in
converting souls. Let us sound an alarm in the ene
my's camp, but not in our own.
What a mortifying contrast to these truly catholic
sentiments do the exclusive churchmanship and secta
rian bigotry of a large portion of the English esta
blished clergy exhibit, through their various mouth
pieces ; of which the chief seems to be archdeacon
Daubeny. And sorry am I to see how blindly some
of the American-Anglo-Church divines tread in this
same sheep-track of fatuity; and how stoutly they
protest against all co-operation and intercourse with
nonepiscopalians, in matters "purely religious."
About the year 1797, Mr. Wilberforce published
"A practical view of the prevailing religious system
of professed Christians, in the higher and middle
classes of England, contrasted with real Christianity,"
This excellent and eloquent book was, in itself, little
calculated to awaken the bitterness of party pole
mics. It breathes peace and good will towards all
who believe in Revelation ; and though frankly avow
ing the author's attachment to his own particular
sect, it treats others, not only those of different Chris
tian denominations, but also deists and Socinians,
with peculiar moderation and gentleness. In recom
pense for which, that arch Socinian radical, Gilbert
Wakefield, poured out upon him a flood of his wonted
scurrility and calumny.
The main object of Mr. Wilberforce is, to show
the scanty, defective erroneous system of the mo
dern formal English churchmen, both clerical and
lay; to contrast their doctrines and practice with
the public formularies of the Anglican Church, and

WILBERFORCE  DAUBENY. 297
fihe character and conduct of her venerable reform
ers and martyrs ; to show' the paramount importance
of vital religion, even in a national and political view ;
and to unite all classes of Englishmen to serious re
flection on the alarming aspect of the times ; then
pregnant with revolution, and infidelity, and formal
ism, and ruin.
The good archdeacon Daubeny, alarmed at the
pure evangelism of the lay senator's book, published
his " Guide to the Church," as " a corrective of the
evil ;" to use bishop Marsh's words, when he advised
the common prayer book to be always joined with
the distribution of the Bihle. Mr. Wilberforce avoids
all the debatable questions between churchmen and
dissenters, and holds all to be real Christians who
agree in the essentials of the Gospel, though differ
ing in circumstantials. The which appeared to the
archdeacon a grievous sin of omission, if not a deadly
error; and he laboured, accordingly, to persuade
the English people to believe, that the evils of the
age are to be traced to preachers and writers not
instructing their parishioners and readers in the na
ture and consequences of schism.
He opines it to be as, nay more important, to cleave
to the discipline, than to the doctrines of the church.
He is not anxious to inquire if any other candle has
been lighted up, or if the old candle still continues to
burn brightly, or be waning dimly in the socket ; but
all his care is to ascertain if ihe form of the candlestick
be right, and of the true, exclusive shape and size.
AU the English dissenters, all rriodern separatists, as
well as the ancient Brownists, anabaptists and quak-
ers, he declares to be in a damnable error; and con
signs them to the uncovenanted mercies of God.
Thus, at the close of the eighteenth century of the
Christian era, did a beneficed clergyman in the En
glish protestant episcopal church establishment, leap
backward, at one single vault, into the darkest ages
of popery, and shut out all nonepiscopalians from the
Redeemer's kingdom. In support of this marvellous
38

298 SIR RICHARD HILL.
Christian discovery, Mr. Daubeny says : " from the
general tenor of Scripture, it is to be concluded, that
none but members of the (English) church can be par
takers of the spirit (of God) by which it is accom
panied. Without therefore presuming to determine
the condition of those, who are out of the (English)
church; we are, at least, justified in saying, that their
hope of salvation must be built upon some general
idea of the Divine mercy ; to which the member of
the church has a covenanted claim."
This precious " Guide" led to the promulgation of
the popish tenet of exclusive churchmanship, among
the protestant episcopal divines of these United
States ; as will, hereafter, more fully appear.
The English dissenters were not at all alarmed at
the report of Mr. Daubeny's papal popgun; the
sound of which also, seems never to have struck upon
the tympanum of Mr. Wilberforce's ear. But sir
Richard Hill, one of the sounder members of the
Anglican Church, was grieved at the basis of the
archdeacon's divinity, so much better suited to the
meridian of Rome, than to that of any protestant
communion. In his " Apology for brotherly love,
and for the doctrines of the church of England," he
claims for a servant of God, in a conventicle, the
right to be esteemed a brother by the worshipper in
the established church.
He shows the folly and impolicy of pushing the
point of episcopacy too far ; of laying as much stress
upon the regular descent of a bishop, as the jockeys
and sportsmen place upon the pedigree of a blood-
horse, or a pointer-dog. He contends, that this hy
pothesis unchurches full half the foreign communions
in Christendom; and, also, invalidates the orders
and ministrations of numberless English established
clergy, derived from prelates, and archprelates, bap
tized, only, by dissenters, in an uncoven'anted sort of
Way ; and thus destroys the unity of apostolic, epis
copal, succession ; a chain, the failure of one single
link in which, ruins the value of the whole theory.

CHURCH DEFINITION. 299
He adverts to the place which the dqctrines of
grace ought to occupy in the scheme of salvation ;
and proves most conclusively, that mere church
manship is not Christianity. He likewise convicts
Mr. Daubeny of a practice, not uncommon with this
champion of exclusive churchmanship, to wit, the
making a false quotation from the pious baronet's
" Five Letters to the Rev. Mr. Fletcher." This
" Apology," is, on the whole, a spirited, sarcastic,
witty, and eloquent performance.
To the archdeacon's definition of a church ; name
ly, that it is a society, under governors appointed by
Christ ; sir Richard Hill opposes that of the Angli
can Articles themselves; to wit, " a society of faith
ful men, where the word of God is preached ;" and
retorts the charge of schism, or rending the body of
Christ, upon the worthy Bath preacher himself. Mr.
Daubeny denies the Validity of any sacrament, unless
it be episcopally administered. Yet two primates
of all England, not to mention some simple Anglican
prelates; and four supreme, secular, sovereign pon
tiffs of that church establishment, were never baptiz
ed by a bishop, priest, or deacon. What then, ac
cording to the Sarum archdeacon's position, is to be
come of these tmbaptized hierarchs, appointed by
wwbaptized heads of the church, and consecrated by
bishops, whose predecessors were excommunicated
at , Rome, by the old lady of Babylon ; from whose
hands alone the Anglican Church derives her unbrok
en, apostolie, episcopal succession ? Are they not
all in an wncovenanted predicament ?
The Christian Observer, in the commencement of
its career, faithfully protested against the very lax,
and wnscriptural notions of religion, entertained and
promulgated by too many of the English established
clergy, and their abettors. For example, it reproves,
with just severity, the antijacobin review for July,
1802, in which number, the reviewer, after inter
preting John xvii. 20, 21. as proving that all persons
of all communions, which differ in form of church go-

300 ANTUACOBIN REVIEW:
vernment, from that of the English establishment, are
"without a ground for the hope they entertain of salva
tion;" exclaims — "O! would our bishops attend to
this, as their predecessors* the Apostles, did (where ?)
before them; and they would contribute much more
effectually to the enlargement of the flock of Christ,
than by delivering charges* recommendatory of a
spiritual religion; a term* to which a quaker, or a
methodist, may be able to affix a meaning, but which
a sound churchman does not understand. It is a reli
gion, double distilled, its substance all evaporated in
fume, and may suit us when we are out of the body;
but leads only to confusion, and every evil work,
white we remain in it."
The Christian Observer is exceedingly surprised
at the promulgation of such sentiments, in a work,
set up, and continued for the express purpose of
supporting the established church of England. But
a short visit to the United States would teach him,
that these diagnostics of " sound churchmanship," are,
by no means uncommon. He asks: what language
is this from the persons here using it ?
Unbelievers have condemned, as absurd and hy
pocritical, all regard for Christianity, except as a
mere external thing ; an engine to overawe the mul
titude. Men of the world, absorbed in business, or
drowned in sensuality, have practically denied all
that is spiritual in religion. Dissenters have insinu
ated, that the religion of the English establishment
consists chiefly in forms. Mr. Daubeny has main
tained, that the spirituality of divine worship is not
essential to the being of the church of Christ. And
now, spiritual religion is avowedly rejected, and
openly ridiculed, by professed Christians, and sworn
clerical champions of the Anglican Church.
Nothing daunted by the detection of his ignorance
as to all sound Scriptural divinity ; nor by being con
victed of frequent false citations; the intrepid arch
deacon, in his " Appendix to a Guide to the Church,"
says, with his accustomed arrogance, to the editor of

TRUE CHURCH. 301
the Christian Observer, " I mean neither to dispa
rage nOr offend you, when I take upon me to assert,
that you are but a sciolist in theology, if you are yet
to learn, that, however bold the position may seem,
that may be a true church, in which the pure word of
God is not preached."
To this demivolt of popery from a protestant priest,
the Christian Observer mildly answers : compare
this passage with the following extract from the se
cond part of the Whit-Sunday homily ; and Mr. Dau
beny will appear not to agree so exactly with the Re
formers, as he professes. " The true church," says
the homily, " is an universal congregation, or fellow
ship of God's faithful and elect people, built upon the
foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the head corner stone. And it
hath always three notes or marks, whereby it is
known; pure and sound doctrine; the- sacraments
ministered according to Christ's holy institution ; and
the right use of ecclesiastical discipline. This de
scription of the church is agreeable, both to the
Scriptures of God, and also to the doctrine of the
ancient fathers; so that none may justly find fault
therewith." Had the archdeacon read this declaration of the
English Reformers, when he assailed the Christian
Observer, as heretical, for advancing the identical
proposition ? But Mr. Daubeny is not the only high
churchman, who derives both his churchmanship
and his theology, from sources, other than the articles
and homilies, which they so solemnly subscribe.
In these United States, any evangelical clergyman,.
of any religious denomination, can gather a congre
gation, and erect a church, out of the surrounding
world. It is done daily and hourly, over all the im
mense extent of the Union. Our formalists, indeed,
of every persuasion, gain ground more slowly,. for
ivant of a national church establishment. Such no
minal, formal professors, always need the aid of the
secular arm, as a substitute for Baxter's shove to a

302 CHURCH BUILDING.
certain description of Christians. For they make
but little headway, when the competition between
formalism and religion is left open ; and the civil go:
vernment abstains from all undue political interfer
ence. The evangelical dissenters, in England, also, gather
their people, and build their churches, from out of
the surrounding multitude of worldlings. To a much
less extent, indeed, than do the evangelical denomi
nations in these United States ; because they labour
under great disadvantages. They must apply to a
civil magistrate for a license, to give them leave to
worship Jehovah, to preach the pure Gospel, to
awaken sinners to a sense of their lost condition by
„nature, and lead them to the foot of the Cross. They
must also encounter the frowns and opposition of
the established hierarchy ; which, not contented with
generally, as a, body, neglecting the spiritual, the im
mortal interests of the people committed to their pas
toral care ; invariably calumniate and persecute all,
who are in earnest about the everlasting safety of
their fellow men.
But still greater difficulty attends every effort to
build a new church, within the pale of the Anglican
establishment. An expensive act of parliament,
leave of the patron of the living, and of the incum
bent of the parish, must be obtained, before a sin
gle foundation-stone can be laid ; and when the
church is erected, the person, at whose expense it
is built, has no power over it; no voice nor part in
the selection of its minister. It is immediately
swallowed up in the fathomless abyss of church pa
tronage ; and helps to swell the influence, either of
the civil government, or of some noble, or gentle, or
bishop, or body corporate.
Mr. Wilks himself acknowledges this. After la
menting the want of church room in the English es
tablishment, for full half the English population, he
says : while dissenters of every class could collect
subscriptions, and erect meeting-houses, without any

« CHURCH PATRONAGE. 303
legal difficulty; and were availing themselves of the
facility, with a zeal which has multiplied their con
verts in every, part of the kingdom ; the friends of
the establishment, even in cases of the greatest urg
ency, found obstructions in their way often insuper
able. The settlement of the rights of property and pa
tronage ; the conciliation of the various parties, di
rectly or indirectly concerned ; with the expense,
uncertainty and loss of time in procuring a special
act of parliament for the purpose ; presented impe
diments, any one of which was often sufficient to frus
trate the whole proceeding ; and all of which, in
combination, it was seldom possible to surmount.
The recent act for building additional churches in
populous parishes has removed some of these impe
diments ; and has afforded considerable facilities for
supplying the deficiency of church room ; at least, in
the most pressing class of cases.
But this act is clogged with provisions, which ma
terially affect its usefulness ; particularly, the refusal
to give voluntary contributors any share in the pa
tronage, must for ever prevent its becoming a popu
lar measure. The original patronage of the English
churches was more wisely managed ; the presenta
tion to the benefice was usually in the hands of the
founder; so that there was the strongest encourage
ment to build churches, wherever they were wanted ;
which encouragement is wholly withheld under the
present act.
Dr. Chalmers is still more explicit upon this sub
ject. In discussing the question of church patronage,
he says : our reason for affirming a jealousy of the
popular voice in the appointment of clergy, on the
part of the British legislature, is founded on an exa
mination of their recent act for building, and pro
moting the building, of additional churches in popu
lous parishes. Though the parliamentary grant for
this object be so small, that, for a great national effort,
it must be extensively aided by the voluntary sub-

304 CHURCH PATRONAGE.
scriptioris of the people, yet the will of the people is
admitted to no authority in the nomination of the mi
nister. Their contributions are looked for, without
any such equivalent, either in whole or in part, being
provided to encourage them.
When the erection is a chapel for an ecclesiastic
al district, the patronage is vested, either in the in
cumbent of the parish, or in some way to be agreed
upon by the patrons of the parish, where it is situat
ed, in conjunction with the commissioners for carry
ing the act into execution. When the erection is a
new parish church, its patronage is vested in the
patron of the original parish, from which it is detach
ed. In other words, patronage is to have as great
an ascendancy, and the popular will to be of as Uttle
legal force in counteracting it, with the new, as with
the present churches. And so sensitive is the aver
sion to any limitation upon this point, that when a
clause was proposed in the house of commons, for
vesting the patronage of new churches or chapels,
in the twelve highest subscribers, where the edifices
were raised entirely by subscription; this clause,
though supported by the whole evangelical interest in
parliament, and advocated by the chiefs of adminis
tration, called forth a prompt and overbearing ma
jority, who instantly put it down.
So completely is the Anglican Church establish
ment considered as a mere state machine, to swell
secular influence, by the great body of the British
legislature !
Now, says Dr. Chalmers, this is, certainly, not the
way to promote the building of new churches ; nor
to secure an attendance upon them when built. And
the only hopeful circumstance in the whole of this
national provision, is, that the stipend of the minister
is paid out of the pew rents, raised from the hearers ;
the common mode of raising the salary of our Ame
rican clergy, in most of the denominations. This
will compel an accommodation to the popular taste, at
least, in the first instance.

MR. GLADSTONE. 305
But utterly helpless is every speculation of the le
gislature, about the revival and growth of public vir
tue in England, when thus impeded by their own
groundless alarms ; and. by their utter misconcep
tion of what that instrument is, by which people are
drawn to attend on the lessons of Christianity ; and
of what that Christianity is, which emanated pure
from the mouth of revelation, and which, by its
adaptation to human want,,and human consciousness,
is sure to meet with a responding movement from the
multitude, whenever it is addressed to them.
One evil has ensued upon this movement of the
legislature. It has tended to fill and satisfy the pub
lic imagination ; and thus arrested the zeal of pri
vate adventurers, friendly alike, to the establishment
and to Christian education. Previous to the passing
of this act, Mr. Gladstone, of Liverpool, erected two
new churches in that tqwn, negotiating for himself,
not the permanent patronage, for this could not be
obtained, but the three first nominations of a minis
ter to each of them.
There Was, in this instance, every security for a
popular exercise of the patronage. The zeal which
prompted the undertaking, was a guarantee for the
appointment of acceptable and effective clergymen.
And, as the seat rents were to form the revenue, both
for the minister's stipend, and the repair of the fa
brics, the power of a veto was conceded to the po
pular voice.
Had Mr. Gladstone obtained the perpetual patron
age of his two churches, in return for having erect
ed and endowed them, the right would have de
scended, by inheritance, to his family, and like any
other property, been transferable by sale. We know
not how far the actual patronage, in England, has
taken origin, and its descent, from the liberality of
founders ; or been rendered to great proprietors, as
an equivalent for the church expenses laid upon
them. But when we think for what essential pur
poses this right may be acquired, and how fairly it
39

306 ( BISHOP RYDER.
may be appropriated, and handed down in families,
from one generation to another, we look to its guid
ance, and not to its overthrow, for any great Christian
reformation of the (established) churches in England.
The holders of this important right will, at length,
(sed quando, domirie ?) participate in the growing spi
rit, and illumination of the age ; and while othets re
gard patronage as the great instrument of the corrup
tion arid decline of Christianity ; we trust, that un
der the impulse of better principles, it will, at length,
(how long ?) become the instrument of its revival.
We envy not that dissenter his feelings, who wbuld
not bless God, and rejoice in the progress of an
apostolic bishop through his diocese. But it is not
from this quarter, at present, that the glance of dis
approbation and disdain falls upon him. It is from
his own brethren on the episcopal bench ; who, if,
instead of lifting upon bini the frown of a hostile
countenance, were to go and do likewise* they would
throne their establishment in the affections of the
whole population; and by the resistless moral force,
which lies in the union of humble worth and exalted
condition, would cause both the radicalism and infi
delity of England, to hide their faces, as ashamed.
Wherever the good bishop of Gloucester, (Dr.
Ryder,) assumes, for a day, the office of humble pas
tor, in one of the humblest of his parishes, he leaves
an unction of blessedness behind him ; and the
amount of precious fruit, that springs from such an
itinerancy of love, and evangelical labour, is beyond
all computation. Such a mingling with the people
would not confound, but firmly harmonize, ranks. It
would sarictify and strengthen all the bonds of so
ciety. It is wretched to think, not merely, of sound prin
ciple being thrown aside, but of sound policy being so
glaringly traversed, by the derision and discourage
ment laid on all the activities of religious zeal; or, that
they, who preside over the destinies, as well as the
patronage of the English church, should have been

BEST CHURCH PATRONAGE. 307
misled into the imagination, that her security lies in
her stiUne^ss ; and that should the warmth of restless
sectarianism be, in any semblance or measure, im
ported into her bosom, it will burn up and destroy her.
Does Dr. Chalmers exhibit these facts and observa
tions, to show forth the beneficial tendencies and in
fluences of the existing system of patronage, in the
Anglican Church establishment ? It was the patron
age of the British government, which manufactured
those very formal bishops, who scowl with the dark
est frowns, upon the apostolic labours of their evan
gelical brother of Gloucester ; those very formal bi
shops, who, if report speak truth, laboured by una
nimous petition, both archiepiscopal and prelatical,
to prevent Dr. Ryder from ascending to his present
elevation ; their righteous petition only failing in its
object by the force of family, and fraternal effort.
We believe the best system of church patronage to
be, the election of the clergyman by the people, who
pay him his stipend, and to whom he administers in
spiritual things. In these United States, and among
the evangelical dissenters in Britain, where the peo
ple actually call and elect their own ministers; a
much greater proportion of vital religion, and active
practical piety, are found, than in the churches qf
the Anglican, the Hibernian, and the Scottish esta
blishments ; in which, the civil government, the lay
nobility and gentry, the bishops, and the corporate
bodies, both secular and clerical, dispose of all the
ecclesiastical dignities and benefices.
It is also worthy of remembrance, that the mere
possession of large funds and revenues, cannot render
a church flourishing and prosperous. If it could, the
established chureh of England, with an annual in
come greater than the whole permanent capital of
all the American churches put together, would infal
libly crush the efforts of all other sects ; instead of
continually clamouring about her own danger of pe
rishing, from the rapid and increasing growth of so
many various denominations of dissenters.^

308 BEST CHURCH TREASURY.
By far the wealthiest of all the religious bodies in
these United States, is the protestant episcopal com
munion, in the city of New-York ; supposed to pos
sess real estate to the amount of six millions of dol
lars in value; though not yielding an income cor
responding with so large a capital. Yet the Ameri
can-Anglo-Church halts very far behind many other
denominations, in numbers, and activity, and influ
ence. The real, the only secret of a church's prosperity,
is to be found in her clergy preaching the Gospel,
and performing the duties of their pastoral office con
scientiously and well.
Scarcely any of the greatest and most powerful
Christian corporations in the Union, to wit, the pres
byterians, the congregationalists, the baptists and
the methodists, possess large permanent funds ; yet
they increase and multiply on all sides ; and their
wants are supplied by the contributions of a willing
people, attached to their faithful ministers, who
preach evangelically. A pious clergy generally
makes a pious laity ; and men really religious, are al
ways ready to give of their temporal substance to
promote the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom ;
to give a part of that gold and silver, all of which be
longs to God, as sole proprietor of the universe ; for
the purpose of erecting temples to his worship and
honour. An able evangelical preacher will do incalculably
more for the best interests of religion, out of the vo
luntary contributions of an attached people, than a
formal drone can do, out of the permanent funds
of a largely endowed church, in conjunction with
the contributions of that congregation, to which
he deals out his weekly dole of Sabbatical snow-
broth. The best ecclesiastical treasury is a Gospel minis
try ; which will always be able, both to build churches
and to fill them with hearers; whereas a formal clergy,
even when churches are already built for them, can

AMERICAN OBJECTS. 309
seldom, if ever gather together either people or mo
ney, sufficient to forward any ecclesiastical scheme,
that might be considered, necessary. This twofold
fact is verified by the daily and hourly experience of
all our large cities, throughout the whole of the At
lantic seaboard.
Nevertheless, Mr. Wilks earnestly recommends
the American legislature, forthwith to make provi
sion for the establishment of a national church. But,
in the first place, the federal constitution prohibits
the general government from having recourse to, such
a measure. And, secondly, if that obstacle were re
moved; the representatives of the people; in Con
gress assembled, would hardly venture to impose the
burden of a state church upon their fellow-citizens;
seeing, that such a proceeding would be in direct
hostility to the whole scope and genius of all the
social institutions in these United States.
Without entering into any detail of facts, as to how
the objects of these social institutions are practically
pursued in particular instances ; without descending
to any investigation of the machinery and movements
of various political parties, from which 1 have always
stood aloof, as cordially as I would from the yellow
fever, or the plague; it is sufficient for our present
purpose to notice, that the two main, avowed objects
of American policy are : first, fo carry on the govern
ment with as little expense, pressure and interference
with the. pursuits and comforts of the people, as is
compatible with executive efficiency ; and, secondly,
to give as much possible personal liberty to indivi
duals, as is consistent with social safety.
If this great experiment in favour of human happi
ness and improvement, shall, in future, and perma
nently, be as successful as it has hitherto proved, it
will be of immense moment, not only to this country,
but to the other nations of the earth; by eventually
inducing them also, to lean with a less heavy hand,
in the shape of government expenditure, and govern
ment restraint, upon their respective people.

310 BRITISH PRESSURE
America would, undoubtedly, pause, before she
burdened herself with an annual tax of fifty millions
of dollars, to support a state church; when she does
not now expend one half of that sum yearly, in carry
ing on the whole of her general government, civil,
naval, military, and including the appropriation of
eight millions for the sinking fund ; which had, on
the first of January, 1822, worn down the whole pub
lic debt of the nation to ninety-three millions of dol
lars, and a fraction ; making a little more than twenty
millions sterling, or, about Aa^"the amount of the an
nual interest on the public debt of Britain.
Now, in England, every third sovereign of the
whole national income goes into the exchequer; or,
in , other words, every third person in the British
isles, works altogether for the government, and is him
self entirely supported by the other two. If, in these
United States, every third dollar of the whole an
nual income of the country, went into the public
treasury at Washington, the American people would
be apt to ask, what equivalent they received for giv
ing up one-third of all their property, time, talent and
labour, to be consumed by government. And, be
yond all question, they would not find the equivalent
in an expensive national church, made up out of one
dominant sect, whose chief ecclesiastical function
aries were appointed by the existing secular adminis
tration ; and whose dignitaries, generally, and sys
tematically, proscribed all evangelical religion, and
persecuted all personal piety; more especially, if
found within the pale of their own established com
munion. Will the British government, with an unpaid pub
lic debt of four thousand millions of dollars ; a weight
of taxation, deducting one-third of the whole yearly
income of the nation ; a prostrate agriculture, an
embarrassed commerce and struggling manufactures;
a system of game laws, which erects every landed
gentleman into a petty tyrant on his own domain ;
and creates a regular army of keepers and poaching

SALARIED SINECURES. 311
banditti, who fill the whole country with depreda
tion, violence and blood ; a scheme of poor laws, that
ensures and perpetuates a degraded, demoralized,
discontented population; persist in being the great
political arsenal for forging formal prelates ; persist
in bestowing bishoprics and benefices on worldly,
irreligious clerks ? persist in secularizing that national
church, of which they are the appointed legal pa
trons, protectors and guardians ? and thus inflict a
deadlier evil upon the British empire, than all the
combined ills of debt, taxation, game laws, poor
laws, a penal code, at once sanguinary and ineffect
ual, and languishing manufactures, commerce and
agriculture ; by alienating the hearts of the people
from their rulers, and by diffusing the horrors of in
fidelity and profligacy, throughout all the ranks and
orders of the community ?
And this, too, at a time when the chiefs of the
British cabinet avow openly in the house of commons,
that it is necessary to keep up useless, sinecure places, in
order to balance the influence of the crown against
the growing weight of popular opinion ; and to carry
on, with sufficient facility and force, the machinery
of government. This audacious declaratiori was
made in March, 1822, during the discussion of a mo
tion for the reduction of one of two postmasters ge
neral, each of whom receives a salary of 2,500/., up
wards of eleven thousand dollars, a year; though it
was not denied, that one of these offices is altoge
ther a sinecure.
The main ground upon which the administration
contended that this salaried sinecure ought to be re
tained, was, that in these days of increased light,
when public opinion has gained a force unknown to
former times, such appointments are absolutely ne
cessary to maintain the due preponderance of the
crown. Now, if this argument be sound,*the British go
vernment ought no? to have made any reductions;
but to have kept up the expenditure to the war-pitch

312 CROWN INFLUENCE.^
of 1815; about five hundred millions of dollars, or
half, instead of a third, of the whole national income.
For, certainly, the influence of the crown Would be
greater, if it took a hundred and ten millions sterling
a year, out of the pockets of the people, than if it
took only seventy millions annually.
We believe that this is the first time that a British
ministry has dared to use such unconstitutional lan
guage, as, that useless and expensive offices are to
be retained for the sole purpose of upholding the in
fluence of the crown in parliament. And we are
quite certain, that such an unconstitutional declara
tion could not have been made at a more unpropi-
tious period, than when the people of England were
staggering under the burden of an universal and op
pressive taxation ; and the whole agricultural inte
rest, in particular, was smarting from the pressure of
unprecedented distress. It showed no peculiar re
spect for the public opinion of Britain, to Send forth
such an insulting avowal.
But the influence of the crown, that is to say, of
the existing administration of England, cannot fail of
being enormous ; from the collection and distribution
of a yearly revenue, amounting to three hundred mil
lions of dollars ; the keeping up a numerous army and
navy ; the innumerable civil and judicial appoint
ments in the British Isles, and their immense colonial
dominions, including the extensive empire in India ;
and from the patronage of the united church of En
gland and Ireland, as by law established.
Surely, a wise and equitable administration of such
immense means, power, and patronage, might give
to the British executive sufficient influence, without
having recourse to the mean and miserable expe
dient of retaining expensive, avowedly useless offices,
in order to secure a certain number of obedient votes
in the two houses of the imperial parliament. And
most undoubtedly, the influence of the British crown
would be incalculably augmented, if it would direct
its church patronage into the channel of evangelism.

,-i, POSTMASTER — PUBLIC OPINION. 313
Ail' evangelical hierarchy, and an evangelical parish
clergy, spread throughout England and Ireland,
would prove a wall of fire, a perpetual, sure defence
to the monarchy and people of Britain, against all
the vain assaults of infidelity, and radicalism, and
anarchy. It is gratifying to know, that this unconstitutional
avowal did not finally succeed. For, although, in
March, the motion to reduce one of the postmasters
general was put down by a ministerial majority; yet,
in the month of May following, lord Norman by mov
ed, that the house of commons would address the
king, praying him to direct, that the office of one of
the postmasters general be abolished. And, after
a long and obstinate debate, notwithstanding the pa
thetic lamentations of the chancellor of the exche
quer, that this motion was an attempt to procure
indirectly, what the administration had directly ne
gatived only a few weeks before, it was carried by
a majority of fifteen. This decision was received
by loud cheers throughout St. Stephen's chapel.
The next day, the marquis of Londonderry ap
peared at the bar, and delivered the following reply
from the king to the address voted last night, by the
house, respecting the office of joint postmaster ge
neral: "the king, having been attended with the
address of the house of commons yesterday, ac
quaints the house, that he will give directions that
the salary of one of the postmasters general shall
forthwith be discontinued. His majesty only post
pones the abolition of the office of one of the post
masters, until arrangements shall be made for the due
execution of the office, under the reduction."
This is a pleasing proof, that public opinion ex
erts a wholesome influence in England. Would that
it were possible for public opinion to compel the
British government, so to exercise its church patron
age, as to purify the establishment from the foul le
prosy of formalism ; and to pour into her aged veins
40

314 NEW-YORK CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT.
the renovating lifeblood of evangelical piety ; that
she may illumine all the Christian hemisphere with
pure and apostolic light.
But the experiment of an established church to
been tried in America ; and with the usual success
of promoting discord and diminishing religion.
In the year 1 693, colonel Fletcher, governor of
the then province of New- York, planned an esta
blishment in favour of the episcopal church. At that
time, the episcopalians in the colony were very few ;
residing chiefly in the city of New- York, and the-
neighbouring counties. They consisted, almost en
tirely, of the officers of government and their depend
ents, and some of the military; that is, in other
words, official test act churchmen.
The Dutch church, at that period, was the pre
dominant sect, as to numbers, wealth and respecta
bility. Governor Fletcher found the house of as>-
sembly decidedly hostile to his scheme, on its first
proposal. But as every public body has always its
full complement of weak members, by duping some,
and bullying others, he at length wrung a reluctant
assent, by a lean majority; and on the 21st of Sep
tember, 1693, an act was passed, establishing the
episcopal church in the city and county of New-
York, and in the counties of Westchester, Queens
and Richmond.
The act was drawn, and the whole device managed
with the due proportion of pious fraud. The inha
bitants of the counties mentioned were directed to
choose annually ten vestrymen and two church
wardens, who were empowered to elect the clergy
for each district; and, to support these clergy, a
certain sum was assessed on the inhabitants gene
rally, of all denominations, in each county. The act
did not explicitly enjoin the choice of episcopal mi
nisters; and by an explanatory act, passed some
years afterwards, it was declared, that dissenters
might be chosen. But by lodging the choice in the

Virginia church establishment. 315
brands of the vestrymen and churchwardens, the elec
tion of episcopal clergy was ensured ; and such, in
fact, always were appointed.
Thus, from the year 1693, to 1776, a period of
eighty-three years, the Dutch and English presby
terians, and all other nonepiscopalians, in the coun
ties of New-York, Westchester, Queens, and Rich
mond, besides supporting their own churches, were
competted to contribute to the support of the esta
blished episcopal church.
This church establishment, as a matter of course,
drew from the other denominations, many converts,
whose unchanged and formal hearts preferred the
temporal advantages of belonging to the state sect,
to remaining with the proscribed denominations,
however sound in evangelical doctrine ; however
pure in practical piety. The consequence was a
continual clashing of hostile sects, and a grievous
declension of real religion. This establishment was
broken up by the revolution; since which there has
been an increasing harmony among the various
Christian denominations; and a considerably in
creased diffusion of vital piety, throughout the com
munity at large.
In Virginia, a church establishment was tried on a
much larger scale, for it pervaded the whole pro
vince. And its result affords the same historical
proof in this country, which has been so long afford
ed in England; of the efficacy of formalism in de
stroying, and of evangelism in building up religious
bodies. Prior to the revolution, the protestant episcopal
church was established in Virginia, under the most
favourable external circumstances. An ample pro
vision was made for the maintenance of the clergy,
who were, generally, regularly bred clerks, sent over
from the state church in England ; and Virginia was
deemed to be an integral part of the diocese of the
bishop of London. These established clergy, how
ever, by persevering in a resolute system of formal-

316 ENGLISH STATE CHURCH.
ism, accompanied with a corresponding secular life,
soon demolished episcopacy in that important sec
tion of the Union.
Of late years, after a long night of entire prostra
tion, the protestant episcopal church has risen from
its ashes, in that state, under the auspices of its
evangelical bishop; and an evangelical clergy,
treading in the footsteps of their venerable diocesan.
And, at this moment, there is no other portion of the
United States, where the American-Anglo-Church
flourishes so much, and increases so rapidly.
And to say truth, in all the other dioceses, wherever
the clergy preach the evangelical doctrines of their
own articles and homilies, their churches are filled,
and numbers continually added to their communion.
While the formalists, like their brethren in England,
either empty the churches which they find full, or
never fill those which they find empty ; and then
shake their sagacious heads in utter surprise, at the
rapid growth of other denominations, whose minis
ters propound the doctrines of the Cross, faithfully,
fervently, zealously.
Hence, we conclude, that the recipe of a church
establishment, prescribed by the English doctors, is
not an infallible remedy, for that low state of Ameri
can religion, which they so confidently announce,
and so pathetically deplore.
The truth is, a national church establishment, in
variably, adds to the natural formalism of man, the
necessary secularity of a secular government, and a
secular patronage ; whence, it is scarcely, if at all,
possible, under such a system, to keep alive a gene
ral spirit of piety, throughout the great body of the
national communion. How far the alliance between
church and state, the pluralities, the gross inequal
ity in the revenues of the different bishoprics and
benefices, the translations from see to see, the sine
cures, in the shape of deanries, canonries, prebends,
and other noneffective appointments, in conjunction
with the mode of ecclesiastical provision, is calculat-

EARLIER METHODISTS. 317
ed to subserve the cause of real Christianity, may be
seen from the actual state. of religion in the English
and Irish establishments, now, §fter all the advan
tages derived to them from the frequent revivals of
evangelical piety, which have taken place in those
two countries, during the last eighty years ; which re
vivals, it cannot be too often repeated, the Anglican
and Hibernian state churches have unceasingly la
boured, and do now endeavour, to depress, and to
destroy. What the condition of religion, in the English
church establishment, was, prior to the year .1740,
may be gathered from the Decades of Mr. Middle-
ton, who says : that spirit is justly chargeable with
bitterness, which can roundly condemn the innovat
ing zeal of the earlier methodists ; when reference
is made to the formal, inefficient, infidel profession of
the day, and an involuntary admiration is excited at
the expeditions of such men as the two Wesleys, De-
iamotte, Ingham, and Wbitfield; prompted by regard
to the souls of their fellow-men.
Nor was the miserable wit of the "Spiritual
Quixote," and the " Minor," competent to invalidate
the decree passed upon their hallowed undertaking
in the cooler moments of reflection. Their zeal in
the first instance, was excellent. And credit, in
particular, is due to the repeated declarations of at
tachment to the national church, made by the two
rival Reformers ; the sin of whose evangelism, how
ever, was never forgiven by the dignitaries of the
establishment ; and, at length, forced them to a reluc
tant separation.
The stir they created, was good ; they quickened
an inert mass of established religion; they carried
light, and heat, and life, into regions of darkness,
and cold, and death. By compelling their formal op
ponents to examine the long neglected doctrines of
the Anglican Church, they raised the tone of theolo
gical instruction. Some of the state clergy them
selves were awakened to a sense of the importance

318 OXFORD EXPULSION.
of their ministerial office, by the exhortation and ex
amples of those very men, whom they were taught
by their ecclesiastkjai superiors to execrate as dan
gerous fanatics, and seditious schismatics, and horri
ble heretics. While others were led, from the mere
proximity of a popular minister, to emulate his doc
trine, to imitate his diligence, and to preach Jesus
Christ, and him crucified. Thusygradually, did the
flame of evangelism spread its holy illumination over
the dark recesses of a formal church establish
ment. And very gradually, and slowly, did this flame
spread ; for about thirty years after the first rise of
Wesley and Whitfield, and their fellow-labourers in
•the Gospel vineyard, namely, on the 11th day of
March, 1768, a solemn convocation was held in Ox
ford, by the vice-chancellor and some heads of
houses ; when, after a hearing of several hours, sen
tence of expulsion was formally pronounced against
six of the junior members of St. Edmund Hall, " for
holding methodistical tenets, and taking upon them to
pray, read, and expound the Scriptures, and singing
hymns in a private house."
It appeared, on the investigation, that the young
gentlemen so severely punished, were highly distin
guished for their religious and moral conduct; so that
the whole amount of the crime charged, was a con
structive breach of some academic, or ecclesiastical
canons. Dr. Dixon, late of Queen's, and principal
of Edmund Hall, pleaded in their defence ; showed
how pious and exemplary was their conduct ; and
that their tenets were in strict conformity with the
thirty-nine articles. Another respectable head of
a college observed, that their fault arose from ex
cess of devotion : and if these six gentlemen are to
be expelled for having too much religion, it will be
proper to inquire into the conduct of some, who have
too little.
This was a just reflection on the scandalously re
laxed discipline, in the university of Oxford, in re-

MR7-WELLING. 319s
gard to the personal morality of its students* About
the same time that these six young men were visited
with the wrath of this great nursing mother of the
English church establishment, for, the sin of praying,
and reading, and expounding the Bible, and singing
hymns, a Mr. Welling had been charged on oath,
with reviling the Scriptures, and ridiculing the mira
cles, on the eve of his ordination as an Anglican dea
con, and was excused by these sanctimonious digni
taries of the established church, on the plea of in
toxication; thereby showing, that blasphemy and
drunkenness are better qualifications for admission in
to a state church, than sound piety, and pure mo
rals. All defence of these young evangelicals was over
ruled, and the vice-chancellor told their chief ac
cuser, that the university was much obliged to him
for his good work. The sentence was pronounced
in the chapel, on James Matthews, Thomas Jones,
Joseph Shipman, Benjamin Kay, Erasmus Middle-
ton, and Thomas Grove ; for the crimes above men
tioned, we David Durell, D. D. vice-chancellor of
the university, and visitor of the hall ; Thomas Ran
dolph, D. D. president of C. C. C; Thomas Fother-
gill, D. D. provost of Queen's college ; Thomas
Nowell, D. D. principal of St. Mary's hall ; and the
Rev. Thomas Atterbury, A'. M. of Christ church,
senior proctor, deem each of them worthy of being
expelled the hall; I therefore, by my visitatorial
power, do hereby pronounce them expelled-"
Of course, the friends of religion were shocked at
such conduct in the chief nursery of the national
church establishment. Mr. Hill, Mr. Whitfield, Mr.
Townsend, and some other gentlemen, addressed
letters on the subject to Drs. Durell and Nowell.
The apology offered by the friends of expulsion was,
that the young men had broken the statutes of the
university, But this plea came with rather a bad
grace from those reverend divines, who most scrupu
lously abstained from expelling any of their students.

320 DRS. NOWELL KWb DURELL.
for swearing, or gambling, or drunkenness, or forni
cation ; which should seem not to be less irregular,
though so much more common, than extemporary pray
ing, singing hymns, and expounding the Scriptures,
among the Oxford gownsmen.
This flagitious act exposed the university to the
grave rebuke of bishop Home, and to the airy ridi
cule of the Rev. John Macgowan's " Shaver." It
was evident, from Dr. Nowells learned and elabor
ate answer to sir Richard Hill, that it is less criminal,
less impious, and much safer, for an Oxford student
to revile the character, and ridicule the miracles of
Christ and Moses, than to pray in private houses,
without a printed book. The eloquent and erudite
orator of the university, gives a full account of the
case of Mr. Welling, his own particular friend, who
was charged, upon oath, with reviling and ridiculing
the Scriptures.
The proof was so direct against the Rev. Mr.
Welling, that he did not attempt to deny the charge.
Was he expelled ? No. Why not ? Because he
pleaded that he was drunk, when he uttered the blas
phemy and the ribaldry, charged against him. The
candidate for holy orders in the established church of
England was drunk, when he ridiculed revealed reli
gion, and blasphemed the name of its Almighty
founder; and yet he was admitted into orders, and
continued a member of the Oxford university, while
six students were expelled for praying and singing
hymns, and expounding the Bible ; by the same re
verend dignitaries of the Anglican Church, who tried
Welling for blasphemy and bawdry, and acquitted
him because he was drunk ; pardoned him one crime,
for committing another.
Is it thus, that a national church establishment
promotes piety, and prevents heathenism, in a coun
try ?
It appears, also, from Dr. Durell's defence of Mr.
Welling, that private religious meetings are in much
worse odour at Oxford, than taphouses and taverns ;

CHECK TO EVANGELISM. 321
for the six young gentlemen were, expelled for pray
ing in a private house; while Mr. Welling's getting
drunk in a taphouse was deemed a valid excuse for
his having blasphemed and ridiculed the Christian
religion, a sufficient reason why he should be ad
mitted to holy orders, and continue a member of the
university. I do not know if the British govern
ment afterwards made Mr. Welling into a bishop.
Mr. Middleton, although he objects to the style of
sir Richard Hill, and to the light manner in which
Macgowan treats so serious a subject, yet acknow
ledges that the sentence of expulsion, passed against
the six students of Edmund hall, was neither propor
tionate, nor humane, nor wise. Not proportionate,
because it applied the extreme of punishment, to an
offence confessedly of no flagrant order, involving
no moral turpitude, but consisting of practices,
which, if violating any academic rules, would, most
probably, have been discontinued, through kind re-
montrance, or positive injunction.
, Not humane, because it summarily deprived them
of the support and respectability anticipated from
their ministerial office. Not wise, because it was
directly calculated to oppose an effectual barrier to
episcopal ordination; and thus reduce the sufferers
to the alternative of renouncing a profession, on
which they had fixed their fondest hope, or seeking
to exercise it among the dissenters.
The resistless inference from these facts is, that
the expulsion of these six students was intended as a
check to those serious and evangelical views of reli
gion, which were gradually gaining ground in En
gland, and beginning to disturb even the death-sleep
of formalism, in which the established church had
so long reposed ; that evangelism, which was more
offensive to those reverend judges and dignitaries of
the Anglican establishment, than blasphemy, and ri
baldry, and drunkenness, combined. Their hatred
and horror of pure, Scriptural religion, induced
them to stain the archives of a protestant university,
. 41

322 SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.
in the eighteenth century, With the indelible disgrace
of this flagitious sentence.
But thus must it ever be, while an intimate political
alliance with the state continues to secularize the
church. Men immersed in the schemes and intrigues
of secular policy, cannot easily look upon the clerical
order in any other light, than as so much machinery,
to be moved by the civil government for state pur
poses. Hence, when sir Robert Walpole wanted all
the votes of the episcopal bench, to carry a particu
lar measure in the house of lords, he desired the
archbishop of Canterbury to be indisposed, and keep
his chamber for a few days.
Accordingly, his grace became indisposed ; and
the premier caused it to be whispered, that the indis
position of the present incumbent, would probably
soon make a vacancy at the Lambeth palace. The
whole bench of bishops, in person and by proxy,
voted for the.proposed measure ; and the archbishop
immediately recovered from his ministerial illness.
There can be no remedy for this crying evil, so
llong as the British government continues to appro
priate to itself the papal usurpation of manufacturing
bishops. Mr. Sharp, in a long note, towards the
close of his " Law of Retribution," gives a detailed
account of the apostolical and primitive catholic
church of Christ, which always maintained the na
tural and just right of the clergy and people ®f
every diocese, to elect their own bishops, for above
five hundred years after the establishment of it ; un
til the church of Rome began its baneful exertions
to invade and suppress that just and important right.
It is evident, in how secular a light the British go
vernment views the English church, by its habitual
prostitution of the most solemn Christian Ordinance
to purposes merely political. A sacramental test is
required as an indispensable qualification for all offi
ces, civil, military and naval. The lord high chan
cellor of" England, the commander in chief of the
British army, and the highest admiral in the navy ;

SACRAMENTAL TEST. 323
in common with the lowest exciseman, foot soldier,
and marine ; must receive the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, administered according to the mode
of the church of England ; before they can enter
upon their respective services and duties.
Now, this perpetual profanation of the last, dying
injunction of the Redeemer, is as foolish as it is
wicked ; because its only effect is to exclude from
the service of the British government, honest men,
who are too conscientious to take the test, for the
sake of their own emolument. For it opens wide
the door of entrance to every deist, and atheist, and
hypocrite, and profligate, who will swallow the sa
crament, or any thing else, for the purpose of forward
ing his own schemes of personal interest and aggran
dizement. Nevertheless, while I willingly bear testimony to
the zeal, and ability, and faithfulness, with which so
many clergy of aU denominations, in these United
States, discharge the duties of their sacred calling ;
it must be acknowledged, as a fact, forced upon the
daily and hourly experience of every observing per
son, that the American population does fearfully out
run the means of religious instruction. It is surmis
ed, that one-third of the entire population, black and
white, live and die without participating in any of the
ordinances of Christianity. And this awful consi
deration alone, ought to be a sufficient incitement to
the American-Angh>Church to exert all her efforts to
send forth an evangelical clergy, into the waste and
desert places of their destitute fellow-countrymen.
In the year 1816, the Rev. Dr. Mason called the
attention of the public to the religious wants of the
Union : an alarming evil, the existence of which,
however* he does not attribute to there being no na
tional church establishment in this country. He im
putes the blame arising out of this condition of things,
in a great measure, to the sectarian spirit which per
vades and pollutes too many of our religious com
munions. But a church establishment is always, era-

324 SPIRIT OF SECT.
phatically and exclusively, sectarian ; and therefore
peculiarly calculated to promote and perpetuate the
irreligion and heathenism of a people.
The established church of England has always,
systematically, opposed and discouraged those very
religious efforts, which Dr. Mason so justly considers
as forming the true glory of Britain ; for example,
Bible societies, Missionary institutions, both foreign
and domestic, and revivals of religion. All of which,
we regret to say, are too little regarded by the Ame
rican-Anglo-Church ; while they are hailed, and
cherished, and forwarded, by the other denomina
tions, presbyterian, congregational, methodist, bap
tist ; all of which prosper and increase, in propor
tion as they promote the cause of pure evangelism.
The only possible way of doing justice to Dr. Ma
son's sentiments upon this important subject, is to
give them in his own earnest, eloquent, irresistible
language; as expressed towards the close of his un
answerable Plea for catholic or Christian communion.
The spirit of sect hinders the churches which it
governs from co-operating together to promote the
kingdom of God. In the United States, where, gene
rally speaking, there is no legal provision for the
maintenance of religion, and especially among the
new settlements, there is frequently, in very small
districts, a confluence of people from various deno
minations. Their junction makes a flourishing town,
and would make a flourishing church. They agree in
primary, and disagree in secondary principles ; but
they will not, for the sake of the former, lay aside
their contests about the latter. Collectively, they
are able to support the Gospel in comfort and dig
nity ; separately, they cannot support it at all.
They will not compromise their smaller differences.
Everyone must have his own way; must be com
pletely gratified in his predilections. The rest must
come to him ; he will neither go to them, nor meet
them upon common ground. And the result is, that
they all experience alike, not a famine of bread, nor

WANT OF ORDINANCES. 325
a thirst of water, but of hearing the' , word of the
Lord. Sanctuary they have none. They lose, by
degrees, their anxiety for the institutions of Christ.
Their feeble substitutes, their small social meetings,
without the ministers of grace, soon die away. Their
Sabbaths are pagan; their children grow up in ig
norance, in unbelief, and in vice. Their land, which
smiles around them* like the garden of God, presents
an unbroken" scene of spiritual desolation.
In the course of one or two generations, the know
ledge of God is almost obliterated; the name of Je
sus is a foreign sound ; his salvation an occult sci
ence ; and while plenty crowns their board, and
health invigorates their bodies, the bread of life
blesses not their table, and moral pestilence is sweep
ing their souls into death. All this from the idolatry
of our church. They might have had Christ at the
expense of sect. They preferred sect, and are with
out Christ. How far the mischief shall proceed, God
only can tell. It is enough to fill our hearts with
grief, and shake them with terror, that, from the com
bination of this with other causes, we have already a
population of some millions of our own colour, flesh
and blood, nearly as destitute of evangelical mer
cies, as the savage, who yells on the banks of the
Missouri. t See on this subject an interesting tract by the Rev.
Dr. Lyman Beecher, " On the importance of assist
ing young men of parts and talents, in obtaining an
education for the Gospel ministry." The ingenious
and inquisitive author has calculated, from various
data, that out of the eight millions of souls, which
compose the population of the United States, five
millions are either utterly without the stated ordi
nances of the Gospel ; or, are consigned to the most
illiterate ministrations.
Supposing his calculations to exceed the fact, as
it is difficult to be accurate on so great a scale ; yet
with every reduction, which fastidiousness itself can
require, the result is sufficient to alarm, to appal, and

326 EVANGELIZING THE EARTH.
almost to overwhelm a Christian, who compares the
ratio of our increasing population, with the probable
supply of the means of grace. Several causes have,
no doubt, concurred in producing our deplorable
state ; but that sectarian jealousies have not withheld
their/?/// amount of influence, seems not to admit of
a question. The churches have been in a profound
sleep, as to this momentous concern. The good God
awaken them with his own voice ; for every other is
wasted on the wind.
When sectarian jealousy and pride lead professing
Christians thus to sacrifice themselves and their
children, it would be vain to look for their concur
rence in generous efforts for the good of others. How
much yet remains to be done, before the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters
cover the sea ; how much before it fill the corners of
every Christian country ; it would be superfluous, to
show. Darkness covers the earth ; and thick dark
ness the people. Millions after millions go down to
the grave unacquainted with the grace which bring
eth salvation ; uncheered by the hope which con
quers death.
If the world receive the knowledge of the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent ; they
must owe the blessing to those who already enjoy the
words of eternal life. If the banner of the cross ever
wave triumphantly over the last battlements of idola
try, it must be planted by hands which have been
washed in the blood of the cross. If the doctrines of
kindness and peace shall humanize the habitations
of cruelty, and subdue the sons of blood, they must
flow from the lips of those, who have tasted that the
Lord is gracious.
Here is a field large enough for their labours; an
object worthy of their zeal. Here are conquests to
be achieved, infinitely more splendid than any which
signalize the heroes of the sword; and a recom
pense of reward, as far above their brightest ho
nours, as the crown of glory, which fadeth not away.

EFFORTS OF BRITAIN. 327
is better than the breath of a man that shall die, and
the son of man that shall become as grass. The en
terprise is stupendous ; the thought is awful. Yet
awful and stupendous as they are, the thought is to be
embodied in fact; the enterprise to be a matter of
history. So saith the word of our God.
And that Christians, were they hearty in the cause,'
half as hearty as they are in getthig the mammon of
unrighteousness, are able to accomplish that word,,
does not permit a doubt. But for its accomplish
ment, there must be a union of counsels, of confi
dence, and of strength, unknown in the church since
the days of apostolic harmony. To such a union
nothing can be more hostile than the spirit of sect.
We do hail indeed, with an exultation, not unworthy,
we hope, of bosoms touched by celestial fire, the aus
picious dawnings of such a day of love.
The truly gracious efforts^in whjch the land of our
fathers, the island of Great Britain, has taken the
lead ; and keeps, and seems destined to keep, the
pre-eminence, encourage us to anticipate things,
which many prophets and wise men have desired to
see, and have not seen them. Eternal blessings on
those children of the truth, who have excited, what
may one day prove, a general movement of the
church upon earth, in order to speak peace to the
heathen ! Upon those benefactors of the nations,
who have poured their offerings into the treasury of
God, and have joined their hands with their opulence,
in the glorious work of sending the Bible, which
teaches sinners what they must do to be saved, to all
peoples, and kindreds, and nations, and tongues.
Upon those vigilant sons and daughters of charity,
who have gone out into the highways and hedges of
the country; into the streets and lanes of the city,
to seek, like their adorable Redeemer, and to save
that which was lost ; to bring the Sabbath, with its
mercies, into the cabins of the poor, and the houses
of the profane ; and to train up, by labour worthy of
the Lord's day, for glory, honour, and immortality,

328 POWER OF SECTARIANISM.
those wretched outcasts, who were candidates for
infamy in this world, and for perdition in the next.
Whose heart does not swell with transport ?
whose lips do not pour forth benedictions ? who that
names the name of Christ, can refuse his God speed?
But what do these things involve ? and how have they
been accomplished ? See it, O disciple of Jesus,
and rejoice ! They involve, they have been accom
plished by the prevalence of the Christian over the
sectarian. No such thing was attempted by modern
believers ; no such honours encircled their brow, till
the Sun of righteousness arising upon them with
healing in his wings, melted their ices, warmed their
soil, and made their sectarian wilderness to blossom
as the rose.
Stronger proof of the baneful and blasting influ
ence of sect on the kingdom of God, no man can ask,
than the fact, now notorious to the whole world, that
what has been thus effected for the one, has been
done at the expense of the other. If he wishes for
confirmation, let him cast his eyes around. Let him
see, in the caution, the management, the address,
which Christians of a catholic spirit are obliged to
employ ; in the slanders (particularly those of the
English state clergy generally, levelled against the
Bible and church missionary societies,) which,
though refuted on the spot, and put to deeper and
deeper shame by every moment of experience, still
rear their front, and maintain their hardihood ; in the
coldness, shyness, distance of some Christian church
es, who came not yet to the help of the Lord against
the mighty.
Let him see in these things how strong a rampart
sectarianism throws up around the camp of the devil !
Let him shiver with horror, when he hears, not from
lying fame, but from unvarnishing verity, that whole
denominations are to be found ; denominations, sound
in the faith of Jesus, who are utterly unable to im
part the Gospel to perishing pagans, and paganized,
Christians : and who, nevertheless, will not lift a fin-

AMERICAN RELIGION. 329
ger, will not contribute a farthing tpward enlightening
their darkness ; because, forsooth, the candle can
not be carried in their candlestick ! What shall we,
what can we say to such reluctance ? does it admit of
more than one interpretation ? namely, that they had
rather these their poor fellow-sinners should sink
down to hell, under the brand of the curse, than rise
up to heaven, with the image and superscription of
the Son of God, unless their own name be entwined
with his, in the coronet of life ?
Since Dr. Mason penned this forcible appeal to
the religious world, nearly all the evangelical deno
minations, in these United States, have acted toge
ther more in harmony and concert, for the purpose
of diffusing the blessings of the Gospel to their pe
rishing fellow-men, both at home and abroad. That
religious body of which he has himself, for many
years, been a most distinguished member, has lately
united with the general presbyterians ; and they are
both, now, moving forward, as one great, concentrat
ed, evangelical communion, to scatter the rays of
Scriptural light, not only over this immense continent,
but throughout the remotest recesses of the habita
ble world.
No honest man will talk of the low and languish
ing state of religion in this, as compared with any
other country ; if he has an opportunity of becoming
acquainted with the efforts of " the American Bible
Society," supported almost entirely by nonepisco-
palians; the American-Anglo-Church, generally,
standing aloof from this labour of love, because the
pure word of God, without note, and without com
ment, cannot be carried in her little candlestick ; the
efforts of the Sunday school associations, to rescue
the rising hope of the Union from the perdition of
ignorance and crime; the efforts of "the United
Foreign Missionary Society," composed of the pres
byterian churches ; of " the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions," sustained
chiefly by the congregationalists of New-England ;
42

330 REPORT OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
of the baptist and the methodist missionary socie
ties; of the societies for promoting the Gospel
among seamen ; to spread the germ of everlasting
life over the universal earth.
To which add the vast and continually increasing
number of evangelical preachers, and pastors, in all
the various denominations ; even in the American-
Anglo communion itself, where there is still tdo much
churchmanship, and too little Christianity ; and we
shall have reason to rejoice in the hope, nay, in the
assurance, that this mighty continent is to make a
very important portion of" the Messiah's kingdom ;
not only enjoying in itself the inestimable privilege
of the everlasting Gospel, but raying out the beams
of blessedness to all other nations, remote or near.
Nevertheless, there still is an awful deficiency of
religious instruction in these United States ; as may
appear from the report of the "General Assembly"
of the presbyterian church, dated May, 1822. This
instructive and interesting document describes the
state of religion within the bounds of the General
Assembly of the presbyterian church ; and of the
General Association of congregational churches in
Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the General
Convention of the same persuasion, in Vermont, dur
ing the year from May, 1821, to May, 1822.
The General Assembly offers its thanksgivings to
the Great Head of the church, for the blessing of
his presence, and the sanctifying influences of Ms Ho
ly Spirit, among the various religious eommunions.
Yet they deplore the lukewarmness, and conformity
to the world, still too prevalent in. professing Chris
tians ; the neglect of family prayer, the want of zeal
for extending the interests of the Redeemer's king
dom; and, in some few instances, dissensions and
backslidings. In some parts of the land, attempts are made to
propagate the most pernicious errors. With a zeal,
worthy of a better cause, and under lofty pretensions
to a superior rationality, and to deeper discoveries in

RATIONAL CHRISTIANITY. 331
religion* some are endeavouring to take away the
crown from the Redeemer's head ; to degrade Him,
who is the mighty God, and the Prinee of life, to a
level with mere men, and to rob us of all our hopes
of redemption through his blood. Pretending too,
a more expanded benevolence to man, and more enr
nobled ideas of the goodness arid mercy of God,
they assiduously propagate the sentiment, that all
men will ultimately obtain eternal happiness, howe
ver sinful their present temper and conduct may be;
without any regard to the cleansing of the blood of
atonement, or the sanctifying influences of the Spirit
of God.
Believing that these sentiments are utterly subver
sive of Gospel truth and holiness ; that tney alike
dishonour God, and destroy the present and eternal
welfare of men, the General Assembly warns its
brethren against them ; and exhorts to a steady attach
ment to the truth, which is according to godliness.
The gross vices of intemperance, profane swear
ing, Sabbath breaking, and gambling, still extensive
ly exist. The excessive use of spirituous liquors,
continues to produce the most deplorable effects, and
threatens still greater injury. But the Assembly ad
verts to one subject with the most painful feelings.
Vast sections of the country, particularly the fron
tiers, are destitute of the stated means of grace.
In the presbytery of Niagara, there are but four
pastors to twenty-six congregations ; in the presby
tery of Genesee, only two pastors to nineteen congre
gations, of which only one enjoys the stated preach
ing of the Gospel more than half the time. In the
presbytery of Bath, the churches are few, and most
of them destitute of a ministry ; there being only six
ministers in nearly as many counties. Multitudes
are living without God in the world, and paying not
even an outward respeet lo the institutions of the
Gospel. In many families the Scriptures are not to
be found ; and in too many instances, no desire is
shown to possess them. In many places, no meetings

332 WANT OF MINISTERS.
for public worship are held; and in others, such
meetings are thinly attended.
In the presbytery of Champlain, many towns are
destitute of a preached Gospel, and church privileg
es ; and in the extensive presbytery of Susquehanna,
there are but ten ministers to twenty-six widely scat
tered congregatioris. Of twenty-nine congregations,
in the presbytery of Erie, twenty-one want a stated
ministry ; and of thirty-three congregations, in Lou
isville presbytery, above half are in the same condi
tion. The presbytery of Union requires two or three
times its present number of ministers. Iri Grand Ri
ver presbytery, there are only twelve ministers to
twenty-nine congregations.
The presbytery of West Tennessee, covering a
large tract, aiKf including a population of 310,000
inhabitants, has only fourteen ministers, and no licen
tiate. The few missionaries who have traversed
this region, have been well received ; and much so
licitude is manifested to obtain a zealous and enlight
ened ministry. The presbytery of Missouri covers
a country nearly 300 miles square, and contains more
than 120,000 inhabitants; and is nearly a moral
waste. Thousands are crying for the bread of life,
and many new churches might be formed, if there
were enough faithful and devoted ministers. The
presbytery of Mississippi embraces the two states of
Mississippi and Louisiana; with a population ex
ceeding 200,000 souls ; and has only eight ministers
and four licentiates.
Several important towns, rapidly increasing in
population and wealth, present interesting places for
missionary stations. New-Orleans contains 46,000
inhabitants, and is annually growing in all kinds of
resources. The short ministry of the late lamented
Mr. Larned was very useful. The presbytery of
Georgia, including above half the state, .has only
eight ministers ; and in the extensive presbytery of
Concord, the ordinances and institutions of religion
are hardly known.

RELIGION IS INCREASING. 333
In most of these destitute places, pernicious errors
are propagated, and in. all* gross immoralities abound.
Removed from the benign influences of Chris
tianity ; without its powerful restraints ; destitute
of Sabbaths and sanctuaries ; unchecked by the so
lemn admonitions, arid uncheered by the glorious
hopes of the Gospel, multitudes live in sin, and die
in impenitence. Seldom does the herald of salva
tion raise his inviting voice among them ; and sel
dom do the sounds of prayer and praise ascend as
grateful offerings to heaven.
It is gratifying, however, to learn, that an earnest
desire is felt to obtain the Gospel ministry in these
destitute places. Many of the followers of Jesus
pray to Him, to send them faithful labourers. Sab
bath schools, and missionary and education socie
ties, have been already established in some parts.
In some instances, the destitute congregations perse
vere in maintaining public worship ; and there is an
increasing attention to the means of grace. In ma
ny of these places ministers have gone forth in com
pany, two or three at a time, and preached and visit
ed, and God has greatly blessed their labours.
But let us turn to brighter scenes. With few ex
ceptions, the statements from the different presby
teries show religion to be increasing. Infidelity is
scarcely any where openly professed. The churches
generally, are Walking in peace. There is an in
creased attention to public ordinances ; and many
new congregations have been organized, and new
churches erected, throughout the Union ; several in
regions which, a short time since, were an uninhabit
ed wilderness.
The monthly concert for prayer is generally observ
ed. Bible and catechetical classes are beneficially
continued. Baptized children, with their parents,
are often convened, and reminded of the solemn
obligation of the baptismal covenant. Praying soci
eties are very generally established. Sabbath
schools are numerous and flourishing. Liberal pa-

334 MISSIONS  REVIVALS.
tronage has been extended to various benevolent and
pious institutions ; and many missionary, and educa
tion, and Bible societies are flourishing ; more espe
cially the American Bible society is increasing, in
funds and auxiliary institutions. Several societies to
educate poor and pious youth for the Gospel ministry,
have been established during the last year ; and the
churches begin to awake to the importance of this
subject. There are several missionary associations of young
men ; — that at Richmond employed eight mission
aries during the last year. The members of the
Dialectic Society, students in the university of North
Carolina, have contributed towards endowing a pro
fessorship in the theological seminary at Princeton.
Several heathen children in the island of Ceylon,
and other places, are fed, clothed, and instructed
by the contributions of pious females, within our
presbyterian bounds.
The missionary concerns are crowned with the
blessing of God, The number of missionaries is in
creasing, though not sufficiently to meet the growing
demands of a rapidly increasing population. The
presbyterian seminary at Princeton furnishes annu
ally, valuable missionaries, wrhose labours are grate
fully received, and accompanied with a blessing.
God, also, still blesses several of our colleges with
the influences of his Spirit. At Hamilton College,
a majority df its hundred students are pious ; — and
at Union college seventy, out of two hundred and
forty. In addition to the general increase of religion, spe
cial instances of revivals are enumerated, in different
sections of the union. And it is stated, that the be
nign effects of past revivals attend these. Profess
ing Christians are awakened to zeal and devoted-
ness in the cause of Christ. And though the opera
tions of the Holy Spirit on the minds of sinners, have
been diversified, yet generally, they feel deep con
victions of sin, with a sense of their undone condi-

PRAYER — PREACHING. 335
tion, as transgressors of the divine law, and a dis
covery, that salvation can be found only in Christ.
Deep silence prevails in these religious assem
blies. This blessed work is confined to no particu
lar age, or sex, or class, blooming youth and hoary
age ; the child of seven, and the old man weighed
down with the sins of threescore years and ten ; the
infidel, ^he profane, the formal, and the moralist,
have all been brought to a sense of their lost condi
tion, and to bow to the sceptre of the Prince of life,
and to seek salvation from his hands, as bis free gift.
Among the means, blessed by God, to the produc
ing of these effects, special prayer has been signally
successful. In many congregations, particular days
have been set apart for fasting and prayer. Con
certs for prayer have been held by private Chris
tians. — Pastoral visitation, from house to house* and
visitations by private Christians, with personal dis
course on eternal concerns, have been also greatly
blessed. In preaching, the spirituality of God's law,
and its tremendous curse denounced against sin,
have been explained, and pressed upon the con
sciences of sinners ; — who have been warned of their
inability to work out a justifying righteousness of
their own, and solemnly exhorted to immediate re
pentance and faith in Christ.
The fruits of these revivals are exhibited in the
moral reformation of their subjects ; — in an increase
of the spirit of prayer, and of liberality in support
ing the Gospel.
The General Association of Connecticut shows,
that the churches in that state are reaping the bene
fits of the late extensive, and of continuing revivals.
A large proportion of the mission school, at Cornwall,
is hopefully pious : and arrangements are making to
extend the theological department of Yale College.
The General Association of Massachusetts de
clares the increase of religion, within its limits ; —
great revivals in Berkshire ; — more than three hun-

336 SEAMEN — PRINCETON.
dred young men assisted by the American Education
Society; — an increase of the missionary spirit; in
Plymouth and Norfolk counties, the establishment
of a Palestine missionary society, which supports a
missionary to the Holy Land. The Andover theo
logical institution flourishes, and contains one hun
dred and thirty-two students.
The General Convention of Vermont shows the
interests of the Redeemer's kingdom to be greatly
on the increase in that state. Yet the want of faith
ful pastors is still felt. Of 1 7 1 churches, connected
with the Convention, nearly half are vacant. But
the cause of religion is advancing. Through the
past year, there have been great and powerful re
vivals, in fifty towns : in each of which, from fifteen
to two hundred persons have been received into the
churches. These revivals still continue in many
places. About two thousand five hundred persons have
joined the churches, during the past year. In Mid-
dlebury college there has been a revival among the
students, of whom two-thirds are pious. The spirit
of missions is increasing in the state; and education
societies are formed, of which one aided forty young
men in two years.
In many cities, efforts are made to promote the
spiritual welfare of seamen. Places of worship for
mariners are opened in several seaports ; and both
mariners themselves and their families, have receiv
ed great benefit from attending the public ordinances
of the Gospel. The Assembly recommends to the
ministers and members of its churches, to encou
rage and promote these useful institutions.
The theological seminary at Princeton still conti
nues to enjoy the smiles of the Great Head of the
church. A missionary spirit is diffused among its
students ; some of whom have already devoted them
selves to the labours and privations of a foreign mis
sion. The churches are already enjoying the fruits
of this most important institution.

AMERICAN SECTS. 337
\ The theological seminary at Auburn, under the.
care of the synod of Geneva, is flourishing ; and ef
forts are makipg to establish theological schools in
other parts of the union.
The Assembly congratulates the churches under
its care, on the recent union between the presbyte
rian and associate reformed communions; from!
which it augurs the most beneficial effects to the best
interests of true religion. On the whole, the review
of the past year is calculated to awaken the liveliest
sensations of gratitude, for the increased and increas
ing spread of the everlasting Gospel, throughout the
United States.
It cannot be denied, that some parts of this very
interesting report proclaim a deplorable dearth of
presbyterian clergy, in proportion to the extent of
their limits, and the number of their congregations.;
But, not now to insist upon the bright prospects held
out in the better half of this important document, —
the presbyterians are not the only religious denomi
nation which labours upon the ground, marked out
in their moral map. Other persuasions, particular
ly the baptists and methodists, traverse the same
regions, in the service of the same redeeming God ;'
and with signal success.
The congregationalists are not numerous, out of
New-England. And the protestant episcopalians are
few and feeble, in most parts of the union ; particu
larly oh the frontier settlements, and over the Alle
ghany hills. Besides, the American-Anglo-Church
is too apt, in imitation of her established mother in
England, to discourage, and frown upon all revivals
in religion, all meetings for special prayer, and all
preaching of the peculiar doctrines of the Reforma
tion ; more especially, the wholesome Scriptural doc
trine of justification by faith alone ; — whence, both
these churches halt in their progress, while other
evangelical denominations spring forward in their
career of usefulness and good.
43

338. BRITISH RELIGION.
But, in reference to this, subject, it might be ask
ed, how far the great body of the people of England
would be from heathen darkness and irreligion, if
they were left entirely to the ghostly care of their state
hierarchy and state clergy ? Nay, how far is a large
proportion of them from paganism now ; when the
formalism of the national church estabUshment is, in
some measure, continually counteracted by the evan
gelism of the methodists, and baptists, and orthodox
dissenters ?
Above all, what is the amount of heathenish igno
rance and profligacy in Ireland, where the people
have long enjoyed the threefold benefit of a state
church, a popish priesthood, and a protestant dis
sent? The remedy, therefore, for the deficiency of reli
gious instruction in these United States is not to be
found in a national church establishment ; — seeing,
that for the most part, the people belonging to the
English and Irish state churches, are worse instruct
ed, and more neglected, than are the members of al
most every other religious community.
The principal evangelical denominations, in these
United States^ have instituted a home mission, for the
purpose of supplying the deficiency of Gospel ordi
nances and instruction, throughout the country.
From which institution, we, undoubtedly, augur more
beneficial effects, than from the establishment of a
formal, secular, state church. And we should hail
it as a token for good, if the American-Anglo-Church
would imitate the zeal, and liberality, and catholic
spirit of some other Christian communions, with re
gard both to foreign and to domestic missions.
To say nothing of the established church of Ire
land, and the gross, the criminal neglect, of so large
a portion of her amply paid clergy ; — what propor
tional good does the richly endowed Anglican church
do, towards evangelizing the people in her ten thou
sand parishes ?

AMERICAN HOME MISSION. ' 33d
On the 10th of May, 1822, met in the city of New-
York, a convention of delegates, to form a domestic
missionary society. There were present, delegates,
both clerical and lay, from the Northern Missionary
Society, — the Missionary Society of the Middle Dis
trict, — the eastern division of the Youth's Missionary
Society of the Western District, and from those of its
middle and western divisions, — the New-York Evan
gelical Missionary Society, — the Young Men's Mis
sionary Society of New- York, — The Genesee Mis
sionary Society, and the presbytery of Albany.
The result of this propitious convention, was the
union of the Evangelical and Young Men's Missionary
Societies of New- York, and the formation of " the
United Domestic Missionary Society." The avowed
object of this society is to spread the Gospel among
the destitute, and to assist congregations which are
unable to support a Gospel ministry. It also con
templates the alliance of existing missionary socie
ties throughout the state of New- York, and the for
mation of auxiliary associations in every part of the
union. Its directors published an able and spirited
address, calling upon the religious of all denomina
tions, to aid in the great work of evangelizing the
United States. The society has now, July 1822,
twenty-nine zealous missionaries, labouring in various
places to diffuse the light of the ever blessed Gospel.
Yet, notwithstanding all these laudable efforts on
the part of the several evangelical communions, in
these United States, to christianize their country
men ; — it is a grave question, which every American
statesman, who knows and feels, that pure and unde
filed religion is the great sheet anchor of human so
ciety, ought to ask — if there be no safe.and effectual
medium to be found, between making one dominant
sect, so linked with the civil government, as to con
stitute a mere political machine, in subordination to,
and at the service of, the secular arm ; — and the mir
ing powers completely disregarding religion ; — mak
ing no provision for Gospel ordinances ; — but leav-

340 NEW-ENGLAND REGULATIONS.
ing, so far as relates to the existing magistrates, a
population, nominally Christian, to gravitate into
speculative, or practical unbelief, and actual pro
fligacy ?
Cannot, as in some of the New-England states is
already done, the American governments generally
provide, that in every township throughout their re
spective jurisdictions, there shall be some religious
ordinances and worship ; still leaving to every indi
vidual the personal rights of conscience untouched,
and his own choice of the particular sect, or deno
mination of Christianity, to which he wishes to be
attached, unimpaired ?
Mr. Ashmun, in his interesting and pious memoir
of the late lamented Rev. Samuel Bacon, principal
agent of the American government, for persons li
berated from slave ships, on the coast of Africa,
makes some judicious observations, in reference to
this subject. He says : the county divisions, through
out New-England, unlike those of most of the other
states, scarcely serve any other purpose, than to
classify the population, and define the jurisdiction of
magistrates and inferior courts. But the corporate
rights of the towns, or sections, from four to six
square miles, into which all the counties are subdi
vided, are guarded by the people as the palladium
of their social prosperity.
The officers of these corporations are one, three,
or five select men ; an assessor, a constable, a trea
surer, some tything men, a town clerk, and other in
ferior officers. They have power, at their annual
town meetings, to pass any by-laws for theirjown inter
nal regulations, not inconsistent with the laws of the
state, and of the United States ; and to vote any sum
of money for the support of the Gospel and schools,
and for the construction of roads. The constitution
recognizes the duty of every citizen to contribute a
just proportion of his property for the maintenance
of public worship, and his obligation to attend upon it ;
and every man is, in effect, supposed by law, to be a

THE STANDING ORDER. 341
congregationalist, until the contrary is shown ; there
being a decided majority of that denomination in
every town.
The congregationalists are called " the standing
order." The increase of other Christian sects in the
state, has raised loud complaints of the inconve
niences which they experience from the operation of
this system. The term congregationalist, in refer
ence to the religious societies of New-England, bears
a peculiar meaning. In the original sense of the
word, baptists, and other Christian sects* are congre
gational, or independent, in their church govern
ment, or discipline. But in New-England, congre
gationalist means the original, and prevailing persua
sion, who adopt the same system of faith, and live
in Christian fellowship with the presbyterians ; from
whom they differ only in their ecclesiastical order
and rule. The government and affairs of their church
are administered by the whole congregation of com
municants ; each congregation constituting a separate
and independent ecclesiastical body, which neither
admits, nor exercises the control of any other.
This order is, sometimes, erroneously called presby
terian.
The sum voted by the town meeting, is assessed
on the inhabitants in proportion to their property,
and forms part of the aggregate state tax for religious
instruction and other purposes, and goes into the
town treasury. Each town is divided into wards of
nearly equal numbers as to inhabitants, of whom
none are more than two or three miles from a school;
and the sum voted is divided proportionally among
the several wards. The select men, the committee
man of each ward, and the clergymen of the con
gregational order, are, ex officio, a committee, to ex
amine the town schools, to report on their proficien
cy, and applaud, or censure, accordingly.
In Massachusetts, the Declaration of Rights/ as
sumes, that " piety, religion, and morality," are ne
cessary for the temporal welfare of society ; and that

342 MASSACHUSETTS RELIGION.
the support of the teachers and institutions of reli
gion is necessary to the prevalence and influence of
religion itself. It is declared to be the duty of every
person to contribute an equitable proportion towards
the maintenance of religious institutions ; and, where
no " conscientious" impediment exists, occasionally to
attend some place of public worship. It is also de
clared to be the privilege of every town or parish,
to choose its own religious teachers ; and among the
ministers so chosen, every individual may direct the
application of his own tax.
All preference to any particular protestant sect,
is distinctly disclaimed ; yet objections are made to
this system, not merely by the irreligious, who wish
to see Christianity, under every form, abolished ; but
also, by some conscientious persons, who, being too
weak, and too few, in their respective parishes, to
obtain and provide, according to law, for a minister
of their own, are obliged to contribute to the support
qf one, in whose election they do not concur, and on
Whose ministrations they do not attend.
But still the expediency of the system must be
tried by the fact of its general advantages outweigh
ing its partial inconveniences. A majority of the
New-England states, until very recently, has always-
decided in favour of its general beneficial tendency.
Another class of persons are honestly opposed to
the principle of any legal interference in matters of
religion. But this is going farther than the framers
of the federal constitution thought proper to go. They
merely prohibited the general government from set
ting up any one particular Christian persuasion, as
the dominant state sect, enjoying the exclusive and
odious monopoly of a national church establishment,
to the proscription and depression of every other re
ligious denomination. The experience of all human
history proves, that no civil government can prosper
without the sanctions of religion, whose support, there
fore, by the public magistrate, seems to be a duty of
self-preservation.

CONGREGATIONAL ORDER. 343
The union of these two classes, in Massachusetts*
seconded by the indifference of too many, to all re
ligion, and religious institutions, obtained, in the new
state constitution, framed in the year 1821, a con
siderable modification of the old law upon this sub
ject. It cannot, indeed, be denied, that the congrega
tional order, almost exclusively privileged by the
operation of the former system, did, sometimes, as
dominant sects are apt to do, assert and enforce
their legal rights, in a manner little calculated to
conciliate the affections of their dissenting brethren.
For example, when the clergyman, for whose sup
port the money was assessed, distrained and sold the
goods of those persons of other denominations, who
refused to pay the tax. This cast much popular
odium upon the congregational body ; — for it enabled
the recusant to employ the same language, which an
English or Irish dissenter might most rightfully use,
in relation to the tithe tax of the Anglican and Hi
bernian church establishments ; namely — " that his
goods had been sacrificed for the support of a reli
gious system which he did not like, — of a clergyman,
whom he only knew as an oppressor, — of a form of
worship, which he never attended."
The question is of difficult solution, either way.
The evangelical dispensation, doubtless demands the
voluntary contributions of Christians, to support its
institutions. But the members of a Christian com
munity may consent to give to these contributions
the form of an equable tax. But the difficulty is,
how to apportion this tax among the various denomi
nations, without unduly exalting and privileging one,
at the expense, and to the oppression of all the other
sects. Under their social institutions, of which the pub
lic provision for the support of religion constituted
a prominent article, the New-England states have
acquired a deserved reputation, for a high religious
and moral character ; with which, at this hour, no

344 NEW-ENGLAND CHARACTER.
other Christian country, of equal population, can
compete. Mr. Bacon says : that in New-England, the laws of
the several states are generally better executed, than
in the middle and southern sections of the Union.
Religion is much more generally attended to ; educa
tion is fostered, and good morals are protected. But
the lower classes have a low cunning and intrigue,
which is dangerous to a less suspicious, and a more
ignorant people. This class, finding their own laws
too strict for them, generally remove to some distant
part of the United States, where their arts and de
ceptions find more room for action. Go among the
people of New-England, and you will find them intel
ligent, hospitable, moral, religious. Their chief cha
racteristics are enterprize, perseverance, shrewd
ness, industry, and economy.
But Mr. Bacon is unusually severe upon the con
gregationalists ; in the year 1817, he says : as to the
religion of New-England, the standing order not un-
frequently exercise persecution. They grasp at all
offices, and having the law on their side, make all
contribute to their worship, who do not produce
written testimony, that they contribute to some other
mode. Every one must go to church once in three
months, under a penalty; and Sabbath breaking is a
crime of no small magnitude. Yet too much hypo
crisy may sometimes be seen under the demure garb
and face of a congregationalist, as well as others.
It is predicted, that the unnatural union of church
and state will take place in New-England, if not
guarded against. The standing order will probably
grow more and more arrogant and powerful, if the
laws in their favour be not relaxed.
This censure, however, seems hardly justifiable ;
for what has given to New-England her superior cha
racter, but the superior conduct of the congrega
tionalists ; all other denominations being weak and
scanty in the eastern states ? Besides, as Mr. Bacon
was, for some years previous to his death, himself

CONDITION OF UNITED STATES. 345
eminently pious, he could not possibly disapprove of
the care taken in New-England to>keep the Sabbath
holy ; which is a positive command of God; and one
of the main preservatives of Christianity in a. coun^
try. And, doubtless, were he living now, no one
would more sincerely rejoice to acknowledge the
actual beneficial tendency of the congregational
system in New-England ; which, notwithstanding its
legal patronage, has not sunk into dead formality,
and general conformity to the world ; but has been
for some years past, and is now, exhibiting numerous
instances of extensive revivals of religion, and of ge
nuine growth in grace.
In whatever wajf the question, as to the propriety
of the mode, '.in whieh the New-England states inter
fere, to provide for the support of the Gospel, be
finally determined ; it is self-evident, that there can
be no stability for the American, or for anyother po
litical institutions, if once a majority, or even a con
siderable proportion of the population become infi
dels, whether baptized or unbaptized.
And in the existing portentous condition of the
whble world, no statesman, who has the welfare of
the federal union bound up in the bundle of his own
life and feeling, can desire to see the evil of national
irreligion, added to those trying circumstances of
this country, the prevention, or the remedy of which
requires the full conjunction of political wisdom,
and political fortitude ; namely the commercial em-
barassments, the agricultural depression* the unset
tled finance, both of the general government and of
the chartered banks ; the constant clashings of the
various codes of municipal law ; the frequent and
growing collisions between the several state sove
reignties and the federal judiciary; and, above all,
the Missouri question, which,, of itself, is pregnant
with an Iliad of woes, in the mutual exasperation of
the slave holding and the other states.
Perhaps the only, certainly the most efficacious,
remedy for these, and for aU other national evils, whe-
44

346 AMERICAN-ANGLO-CHURCH.
ther present or prospective, is to be found in the ge
neral conversion of the people to real, evangelical
Christianity ; alike alien and abhorent from all secta
rian bigotry, and all irreligious indifference.
One plain, practical inference from the preceding
facts and observations, in regard to the American-
Anglo-Church, is, that if she suffers formalism to per
vade* her communion generally, she must languish
and die. But if her clergy, as a body, faithfully
teach and practice the evangelical truths and doc
trines of their own liturgy, articles, and homilies, she
will live and prosper, and not long continue so much
in the wake of other Christian denominations, in
numbers, talent, learning, influence, and utility.
It is but justice to state, that a* a church, she still
professes to cleave to her articles, transcribed from
those of her establised mother in England. In the
" Pastoral Letter to the clergy and laity of the pro
testant episcopal church, from the bishops of the
same," issued at the General Convention in May,
1820, the evangelical doctrines of the public formu
laries of the American-Anglo-Church, are distinctly
recognized and recommended. Consequently, if
she do not suffer herself to be consolidated into one
single, universal bishopric, by the paramount ascend
ancy of any particular diocese, in which evangelism
is proscribed, she may yet lift her head aloft, among
the other Christian churches throughout the Union.
But if she be ever melted down into one uniform
mass of consolidation, her death warrant is from that
moment signed, and sealed, and on the verge of in
stant execution, For, in comparison with the truly
Scriptural doctrines of the Anglican and American-
Anglo-Churches, the creed of a full fledged formalist
is cruder than the undigested crapula of an habitual
drunkard. If there be only one dominant diocese in the Unit
ed States, and that diocese proscribes evangelism,
and promulgates formal, popish tenets; then the
whole American- Anglo-Church becomes virtually an

DIOCESAN CONSOLIDATION. 347
integral part of the papal hierarchy, and totters to
its fall. But if such diocese be not suffered to swal
low up all the rest in its ravenous maw, then it only
may remain in the Egyptian darkness of formalism,
and surrounding dioceses may, by preaching the
pure Gospel faithfully and fervently,, erect a wall of
fire round about, making the formal darkness more
visible by the contrast of evangelical light ; some of
which might possibly penetrate into the frozen mass,
and infuse heat and life into the coldness of death.
And if not, only a part, instead of the whole of the
American-Anglo-Church is doomed to destruction,
by the substitution of formalism in the place of Chris
tianity. It is this consideration which gives so much im
portance to the question, whether or not any one
single diocese shall eventually gain such an ascend
ancy, as to command the whole protestant episco
pal body throughout the union ; and thus, in effect,
rear a popedom in the western world, while that in
the elder hemisphere is hastening to decay ?
These anticipations were suggested in conse
quence of the efforts repeatedly made in the general
convention of the American-Anglo-Church, by the
diocesan delegation from New^York, to substitute
voting by parishes, in the room of voting by states, in
the general convocations of the protestant episcopal
communion. A measure, the inevitable effects of
which, let us pause a moment to contemplate.
In the first place, look at the facility with which
episcopal parishes may be multiplied indefinitely, in
the diocese of New- York, under the provisions of
the statute respecting religious incorporations. A
very few individuals meet together, and agree to
become an episcopal parish ; and forthwith, a lay
reader is appointed by the bishop, and a lay delegate
admitted to the state convention.
In many of these parishes, no clergyman ever has
been, or is ever likely to be settled ; whence the
preponderance of lay over clerical delegates in the

348 PARISH-MAKING AND VOTING.
diocesan convention. In October, 1820, they were
sixty-seven to forty-seven ; nearly half as many more.
Thus, if the scheme of parish-voting be ever carried
into effect, the diocese of New-York will, at all
times, be able to spin, out of her own bowels, a suffi
cient majority in the general convention of the Ame-
rican-Anglo-Church. This faculty of parish-making
enables the protestant episcopal communion in the
diocese of New-York, to loom much larger upon pa
per, in conversation, and in speeches, than she is, in
reality, to the eye of the inquirer, who seeks to dis
cover the aliquot parts of her ostensible aggregate.
This plan of voting by parishes, instead of by
states, in the lower house of the general convention,
is in direct contradiction to the intention of the origin
al framers of that venerable body ; and if once per
mitted to prevail, would infallibly jeopardize the
spiritual interests of the whole American-Anglri-
Church. The intention of the conventional body,
which laid the foundations of the present protestant
episcopal church in the United States, was, to pre
serve each diocese separate, and independent of all
other dioceses, and subject only to the authority of
the church universal, in general convention assem
bled. It'was emphatically designed to prevent, if possi
ble, just such a consolidation, as would enable one large
diocese to swallow up- all the smaller dioceses, and
erect itself into a rival of the Roman see, in this
western hemisphere. In like manner, as in the se
nate of the United States, each separate state is re
presented by two senatorial votes; the smallest,
standing on an equal ground of political sovereignty,
with the largest ; in order to preserve the confede
racy, and prevent the consolidation of the several
United States into one solitary imperial throne.
The confederacy of the separate dioceses would
soon be melted down' into one aggregate episcopal
mass, if the parish-voting scheme should become a
canon, or law, binding tbj!" whole American-Anglo-

PRIMITIVE PERSECUTIONS. 349
Church to spiritual obedience. For then, a majority
being constantly secured in the general convention,
decrees may be fulminated at will, from the New-
York diocesan chair, over all the protestant episco
pal church in the United States ; — as bulls bellow
from the Vatican, over the entire circle of the pope
dom. For, suppose the plan of voting by parishes, in
stead of by states, to be accomplished, and the ge
neral convention, in consequence, subjected to
the control of the New-York diocesan, what must
be the condition of the whole American-Anglo-
Church, when thus consolidated under the dominion
of one universal bishop? Suppose, at any time
hereafter, a New-York diocesan to arise, who shall
labour under the popish, or the pelagian infection ;
— are American protestant episcopalians, in the nine
teenth century of the Christian era, prepared to in
cur the hazard of seeing that. church, to redeem
which from the superstition, the idolatry, the blood-
fuiltiness of popery, their venerable ancestors in
Ingland, gave their own living bodies a voluntary
sacrifice to the flames, the gibbet, and the rack,—
again transformed into an integral portion of the pa
pal hierarchy?
In fine, we are thoroughly convinced, that the
cause of pure, evangelical, vital Christianity, would
not be promoted in these United States, by a national
church establishment, exalting one particular sect
into exclusive dominion, and wealth, and political
importance ;— to the proscription, and oppression of
all other denominations.
Immediately after the ascension of its Almighty
founder, Christianity experienced, according to his
own predictions and warnings, the increasing enmity
of a corrupt and an idolatrous world. During the
first three centuries of its progress, it was called
upon to struggle with, and to suffer from the impla
cable malignity of the Jews, the captious ingenuity
of the Greeks, and the political power of the Ro-

350 FIRST STATE CHURCH.
mans. Yet, under all the persecutions, general and
local, imperial and popular, Christianity increased
daily, and spread itself over every corner of the then
discovered world.
TertuUian says, in his Apology, that in the third
century, Christians were to be found in the camp,
in the senate, in the palace ; — every where but in
the heathen temples, and at the theatrical exhibi
tions. They filled the cities, the country, and the
islands of the sea. So many of all ranks, and either
sex, and every age, embraced the Christian faith,
that the pagans deplored the desertion of their tem
ples, and the ruin of their ecclesiastical revenues.
By the time, says bishop Porteus, in his Evidences
of Christianity, the empire became Christian, there
is every reason to believe, that the Christians were
more numerous, and more powerful, than the pagans.
Which consideration induced Constantine to make
the first established national Christian church; — a
measure, that injured Christianity infinitely more,
than all the ten bloody persecutions of his pagan pre
decessors. The new state church soon produced
an abundant harvest of schisms, and heresies, and
general corruption of doctrine, discipline, and mo
rals. The Christian religion now, in consequence of
the existence of a church establishment, was pro
fessed by numbers, not from any conviction of its
truth and obligation, but from interested, secular
motives. And whatever attention was paid to the
form of exterior churchmanship, the power and in
fluence of real religion on the hearts and lives of its
professors, were awfully diminished, and darkened
nearly to extinction.
The same century, which saw the establishment
of the first national, or state church by Constantine,
also witnessed the diffusion of Arianism over a vast
proportion of Christendom. This heresy was patron
ized by several of Constantine's imperial succes
sors, the legal supreme secular heads of the es
tablished church ; and, of course, spread widely

CHRISTIANITY BEFORE 351
among the state clergy, and the state nobility, who.
were both looking up to .their civil rulers for eccle
siastical and lay promotion and emolument.
Superstition, likewise, as weU as heresy, was an
other blessing, derived from a secular church es
tablishment. And in the following century, the bi
shop of Rome modestly announced himself to be the
head and sovereign of the universal church ; and the
mummeries and blasphemies of an idolatrous, san
guinary system, were substituted for the religion of
Jesus Christ. Cardinal Bellarmin himself, perhaps,
the ablest, the most subtle, and the most determined
of all the enemies of protestantism, has, unwitting
ly, acknowledged the corrupt state of the Roman
church, in the very act of inveighing against the
great fathers and founders of the Reformation.
" For some years, — says Bellarmin, before the Lu-
.theran and Calvinistic heresies were published, there
was not, as contemporary authors testify, any seve
rity in ecclesiastical judicatories* any discipline, with
regard to morals, any knowledge of sacred literature,
any reverence for divine things ; there was not al
most, any religion remaining."
Then, Bellarmin himself being witness, was no re
formation of religion wanted ? Humanly speaking,
it would not have been possible to fasten popery upon
Christendom, as it was fastened from the sixth to the
sixteenth century, if there had never been a national
church establishment fixed, and interwoven with the
secular government. Now, mark the contrast be
tween Christianity, as it was exhibited before and
after its amalgamation with the state.
Wherever Christianity has prevailed in its purity,
and precisely in proportion to the evangelism of its
doctrine ; setting forth the fall of man from his prime
val innocence; — the original and natural depravity
of the human heart ; — the necessity of conversion, or
spiritual regeneration ; — the justification of sinners
by faith in Christ, as,the sole author and finisher of
salvation; — the sanctification of the human spirit by

352 AND AFTER ESTABLISHMENTS.
the Holy Ghost ; — the Godhead of the three Divine
persons in one mysterious. Trinity ; — have individual
purity of morals and national prosperity and happi
ness uniformly flourished.
Wherever Christianity spread its mild and benig
nant light, the waste and wilderness of life began to
bloom as the paradise of God ; the nations of the
earth became purified and exalted in all their moral
and intellectual faculties ; they were freed from the
fetters of political, social, and domestic slavery ; they
were more advanced in skill and knowledge, more
deeply versed in science, more accomplished in lite
rature, more alive to industry and enterprise, more
refined in all social intercourse, more adorned with
every nobler virtue and every polished grace, more
benevolent to man, more devoted to God.
But the dawning of this brightest day was soon
overcast with clouds and thick darkness; — superstu
tion soon poisoned the waters of life in their springs
and in their sources; — a superstition which lulled to
rest all fears of future punishment, while it sanc
tioned and encouraged the commission of every
crime : — which held out incitements to the most pro
fligate ambition, and puovided for the indulgence of
the most sensual sloth ; a superstition, whose impos
ing ceremonies were interwoven with all the institu
tions of secular society ; and whose spirit of delusion
was diffused throughout all the principles of civil
government. The corruptions of Christianity soon began to dark
en, and gradually to extinguish the lights of the
understanding and the sensibilities of the heart ; so
that a greater and a more stupendous mass of igno
rance and iniquity, than had ever yet oppressed the
earth, was exhibited in the moral and intellectual
death of ten successive centuries. The whole cir
cumference of Christendom was veiled in the dark
est pall of civil and religious bondage ; the human
conscience was benighted amidst the terrors of the
dungeon, the rack, the gibbet, and the flame ; the

CHURCH GOVERNMENT IN UNITED STATES. 353
persons of men were delivered over a prey to the
perpetuity of feudal anarchy and boisterous brigand
age ; of castellated feuds ; of partisan warfare ; of
hereditary hostility ; of arbitrary incarceration ; of
inquisitorial torment ; of military execution ; of pri
vate assassination ; of public pillage ; of universal op
pression ; of rapes, robberies, murders, massacres,
conflagrations, and all the unutterably numerous and
diversified calamities, incident to suffering and af
flicted humanity, when force and fraud are the arbi
ters of right and wrong.
Mr. Addison, writing in the reign of Queen Ann,
under the full beatitude of aprotestant national church
establishment, bears, undesignedly indeed, testimony
to the important position, that religion flourishes
better, and is purer without, than with the political
conjunction of the secular government.
In his Evidences of the Christian Religion, he says:
I should be thought to advance a paradox, should I
affirm, that there were more Christians in the world,
during those times of persecution, the three cen
turies before Constantine made the first state church,
than there are at present in these, which we call
the flourishing times of Christianity. But this will
be found an indisputable truth, if we form our calcu
lation upon the opinions, which prevailed in those
days, that every one, who lives in the habitual prac
tice of any voluntary sin, actually cuts himself off
from the benefit and profession of Christianity, and
whatever he may call himself, is in reality, no Chris
tian, nor ought to be esteemed as such.
If this rule of the primitive, wnestablished religion
were applied as the test of the Christianity of all the
clerical and lay members of the Anglican and Hi
bernian state churches ; it is to be feared, that the
real Christians in those national ecclesiastical esta
blishments, would turn out to be, comparatively, a very
little flock.
In these United States, the different church go
vernments are similar to those in England. Perhaps
45

354 AMERICAN-ANGLO-CHURCH.
the greatest variance exists between the outward
organization of the American-Anglo and the Angli
can churches. In the United States, the annual or
biennial convention of each diocese, and the trien
nial convention of all the several dioceses, consist
of lay, as well as of clerical delegates; and there
fore exhibit more of a representative form of govern
ment, than the established church displays in En
gland, where, since the extinction or disuse of the
houses of convocation, the state clergy are collected
in mass, only at the visitations, whether episcopal
or archidiaconal. Nay, in convocation, no laics sate
as members. In the United States, at the diocesan
convention, the bishop presides ex officio ; at the
triennial, or general convention, the bishops collect
ively form an upper hbuse ; while the clerical and
lay deputies constitute a lower house. Each sepa
rate church is governed by its rector, church war
dens, and vestrymen.
In the American-Anglo-Church there is no ostensi
ble patronage ; no bishoprics, nor benefices, in the
gift of the government, or nobles, or gentry, or bi
shops, or colleges, or chapters, or canons, or lay in
corporations, as in England ; where there is neither
Voice nor election, on the part of the people to whose
immortal souls spiritual services are to be adminis
tered. But even in these United States, a spurious
species of patronage exists: for example, if a bishop
happens to be an active, dexterous, managing man,
he contrives to fill most of the vacancies in his dio
cese, with clerks after his own heart.
Now, if such a bustling, busy prelate be fully in
doctrinated in exclusive churchmanship, baptismal
regeneration, term and condition salvation, and the
other dogmas of the modern fashionable protestant
papist theology, he naturally labours to fasten similar
theologues upon all vacant parishes, as the only cler
gy that are orthodox ; while he denounces as " un
sound, irregular, weak, fanatical, methodistic, and
Calvinistic," those ministers, who maintain the truly

PRESBYTERIANS — METHODISTS. 355
evangelical doctrines of the Reformation, embodied
in the articles, homilies, and liturgy of the Anglican
church. The bishop, in the United States, as in
England, is the executive chief of the clergy in his
diocese; but his hand is not strengthened to do mis
chief by any flagitious act of parliament.
The presbyterian form of church government, in
the United States, resembles a representative repub
lic; consisting of a parity of ministers, lay delegates
or elders, the clerical moderator, chosen as presi
dent, or speaker of the house, met together for the
despatch of ecclesiastical business, in their general
assemblies, which superintend and guide all the par
ticular synods and presbyteries throughout the union;
while each separate congregation is governed by a
church session, comprised of lay elders and dea
cons, over whom the minister presides, ex officio.
Each session is amenable to the ecclesiastical juris
diction of its own presbytery, as each presbytery is
subject to the superior dominion of its particular
synod ; and all the churches are under the authori
ty of the general assembly.
The methodists, in the United States, are governed
altogether by their clergy;, no lay delegates being
admitted to their conference or general convention.
The laity are held under a very strict surveillance
by the classes, and monthly and quarterly meetings ;
all establishing a very minute and vigilant police
over the conduct of every member of the society,
both male and female.
The congregationalists, or independents, whether
pedo or adult baptists, profess to make each sepa
rate congregation a separate church, sui juris ; ad^
mitting no appeal to any ulterior or higher ecclesi
astical tribunal. This form of church government
is an unmixed democracy, each member of the congre
gation, male and female, young and old, high and low,
rich and poor, one with another having a vote in all
church matters ; and every controversy being settled
by the whole congregation meeting together, and

356 CONGREGATIONALISTS.
talking and voting. Whence are apt, sometimes, to
arise distraction and tumult.
No means are provided for preserving an ortho
dox standard of faith among the several churches,
as one bbdy ; in consequence of which, too many of
the independents, both in England and in America,
have declined in discipline, and deteriorated in doc
trine; have glided down from Calvinism into Armi
nianism ; thence to Arianism, thence to Socinianism,
thence to deism, or atheism, or nothing, till the day
of reckoning comes. A superior ecclesiastical tri
bunal, unconnected with any particular congrega
tion, and guided by an evangelical creed, as a stand
ard of faith, appears to be the best mode that can
be devised, of wratching over, and preventing or pu
nishing any laxity of discipline, or deviation in doc
trine, that might taint with its leperous instilment,
any portion of the visible church, over which it pre
sides.

CHAPTER III.

On the Anglican Church Establishment.

A slight examination of Mr. Wilk's own exhorta
tions to the laity, state bishops, and established cler
gy' of England, would show, that the Anglican na
tional church establishment is not peculiarly calcu
lated to promote piety, and prevent heathenism in
that country. But such an examination must be de
ferred to a future opportunity. At present, it is suffi
cient to notice two particulars; one, the constant call
for a better, that is to say, a religious and Christian, in
stead of a formal and worldly direction of the patron
age of the church of England ; the other, the deplor
able condition of the evangelical clergy in the En
glish ecclesiastical establishment ; neglected and
discouraged by the civil government ; frowned upon
and persecuted by the hierarchy ; reviled and ca
lumniated by the whole host of clerical state form
alists. The incessant cry of Mr. Wilks, Mr. Wilberforce,
Dr. Chalmers, the Christian Observer, and other
most respectable religious writers, in the British em
pire, that it is the bounden and imperative duty .of
the English government, and bishops, and nobility,
and gentry, to give a different course to their church
patronage ; to turn it from a secular and political,
into a pious and evangelical channel ; is a virtual ac
knowledgment, that the national establishment is not
exactly calculated, much less, absolutely necessary,
to promote piety, and prevent paganism.

358 ENGLISH CHURCH PATRONAGE.
He who excuses, accuses himself, says the French
proverb. Dr. Chalmers, in the very act of maintain
ing the usefulness, nay, the necessity of a national
church establishment, emphatically warns the rulers
of Britain, that if they mil persist in filling their state
hierarchy with ungodly, formal, worldly bishop^* and
priests, they must expect the speedy overthrow of
their national church, at all events ; and perhaps the
subversion of their civil governments.
But how is the Anglican Church patronage to be
come better ? By its patrons, whether in or out of
the cabinet ministry, becoming themselves personally
pious ? In what way ? These men now promote only
formal bishops and clerks ; and what very little preach
ing they ever hear, proceeds from the lips of their
own ecclesiastical eleves. Where then are they to
learn any evangelism, or to discover the importance
of an evangelical clergy in promoting the best in
terests of the nation, by establishing the govern
ment in the heart affections of a religious and loyal
people ?
The British government is called upon to make
evangelical bishops; and the English bishops and
other patrons are exhorted to bestow their benefices^
upon evangelical clerks. But what piety is to be
promoted, or expected, in consequence of the pa
tronage and exertions of formal bishops, and formal
priests ; whose possession of all the prominent posts
of the established church, is implied in the very call
for another, an evangelical system of clerical promo
tion. Are the perpetually shifting and fluctuating bodies
of men, which, from time to time, compose the Bri
tish cabinet, expected to be evangelically inclined ?
And if not, how is the Anglican Church to obtain
evangelical bishops ? Is there a single instance to
be found in all human history, of the men, who con
stitute executive administrations, under any form of
government, being generally evangelical ? Have they
not, always, been generally either open, avowed in-

BRITISH CABINET. 359
fidels, or, at best, merely decent, exterior, secular
formalists? And do such men promote evangelical
clerks, whose Gospel preaching, and holy lives,
would be a continual condemnation qf their patron's
infidelity or formalism ?
An irreligious, formal man, has no more desire to
promote piety, or advance pious persons, than an
illiterate man feels to help forward learning or learn
ed persons. In either case, it would be letting in
light, to discover the patron's own darkness ; an ex
hibition, which no one peculiarly covets. A strong
argument this* in itself, against linking a Christian
church with a secular government; and subjecting
its clergy to the patronage and control of mere in
triguing, ambitious politicians.
It should seem vain then, even for such distin
guished men, as Mr. Wilberforce and Dr. Chalmers,
to call upon the British government to give an evan
gelical direction to their church patronage ; seeing
that irreligious men never promote any but formal
clerks, except by mistake, or accident, or compul
sion. And when is it surmised, that the constantly
changing squadrons, which fill up the British, or any
other existing administration, are to become person
ally pious, before the Millennium sets in? And, until
they are, it is idle to hope, that worldly, secular
men will voluntarily bestow theirecclesiastical patron
age, on other than their own resemblances. Simi-
lis simili gaudet, in church, as well as in state.
The same course of reasoning applies equally to
all the other patrons of the Anglican Church, whe
ther they be lay or clerical ; whence the natural in
ference is, that the English national ecclesiastical
establishment will remain as it has always been, for
the most part, throughout her palaces and parishes,
formal, worldly, irreligious, ungodly, until a decided
majority of the British people shall sweep her from
off the face of the earth, as a cumberer of the
ground.

360 ENGLISH CHURCH PERISHING.
Mr. Wilks, Mr. Wilberforce, the British Review,
nay, even good old John Newton himself, all assume
it, as given, that if the Anglican state church esta
blishment ceases, the church of England perishes, as
a matter of course ; which, by the way, is no great
compliment to her apostolic purity, that she cannot
stand a single moment upon her own legs ; but must
be supported by parliamentary crutches, and guided
by the leading strings of the lord high chancellor,
and the first lord of the treasury. And they also as
sume, that as a necessary consequence of the eva
nishing of the English church, all the people of
England are to become, in due time, as dark and dis
mal heathens, as any of the negroes in the interior of
Africa, or as Mr. Jefferson's red brethren, the abo
riginal Indians, on this American continent.
Now, not to insist, these gentlemen themselves be
ing judges, that the continuance of a formal patron
age, on the part of the government, the nobility,
gentry, and hierarchy of England, is the surest of all
possible means to destroy their national church es
tablishment ; neither of these assumptions appears to
be founded either on fact or argument. For, in the
first place, the Anglican Church, as a body, would
be much more purely religious without, than with,
the unnatural union and alliance between her and
the secular government; — and, Secondly, if the
church of England perish, it is very possible for the
Christian religion to find an existence in other Chris
tian denominations.
Do men read, and believe the Bible as the infalli
ble word of God, when they opine that Christianity
will perish in Britain, in the event of the English
church ceasing to be a national state establishment ?
Do they seriously think, that the church of Christ de
pends for its preservation and existence upon the enact
ments of the British imperial parliament, the conge
d'eslire of George the fourth, and the cabinet patron
age of lord viscount Eldon, and the earl of Liverpool ?

CHURCHMEN  NONCONFORMISTS. 361
In these United States, there is no national church
establishment; and although there is too much formal
ism in our protestant episcopal communion, yet she
is proportionally purer, and more evangelical in her
doctrines, and in the conduct of her clergy, than is
her established mother in England; whence the
fair inference is, that the Anglican church would be
less formal, less secular, less irreligious, if she were
not encumbered by the control and patronage of the
civil government, but left to her own evangelical ef
forts, as are all the Christian denominations in this
country. And surely, the Christian religion would not perish
in Britain, if the church of England died ; seeing,
that there is more evangelism out of, than in, the es
tablishment now, notwithstanding the existence of
a state church. And how would there be less religion
among other denominations, if she should cease to of
fer a continual high bounty for the general produc
tion and diffusion of formalism and ungodliness,
throughout the nation, by her close and intimate al-
liancewith the state? if she should cease to proscribe
all evangelism alike in her own, as well as in other
communions ?
In his very sensible preface to the Memoirs of
Mrs. Savage, the daughter of Philip, and the sister
of Matthew Henry, an excellent woman, worthy of
such a father and such a brother, Mr. Jay says, —
an inspection of these papers shows us, that a dissent
from the national church may be founded in convic
tion, as well as education ; and does not necessarily
imply a fastidious, or a factious disposition; that it
does not render its subject blind to what is good or
excellent in the doctrine and liturgy of the establish
ment, or prevent prayer for its success, or rejoicing
in its welfare. It shows us too, how little it encou
rages disaffection to civil obedience, or forbids ren
dering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.
Could, the diaries of Mrs. Savage's times be ex
plored, what a contrast would be found between the
46

362 HEAD OF THE CHURCH.
sentimerits such worthies confessed before God in
their most sacred moments, and those charged upon
them by their calumniating adversaries. Take the
following extract from the journal of her honoured
father, when deprived of his living for conscience
sake. May 29, 1663, a thanksgiving day for the
king's return*; a mercy in itself, for which the Lord be
praised, though I, and many more, suffer by it.
That any clergyman, cast out of his benefice by the
execrable Bartholomew act, should praise the Lord
for the return of Charles the second to England, does
seem to be a marvellous effort of Christian charity,
and the utmost stretch of human loyalty. It should
not be forgotten, that the ejection of such ministers
as Philip Henry, and Richard Baxter, and others, of
whom the world was not worthy, from the church of
England, was one of the signal blessings conferred
upon religion, by the national establishment ; doubt
less, to promote piety, and prevent heathenism in the
country. The Great Head of the church has declared that
He will always preserve it; and, consequently, there
is no cause of alarm, that the church of Christ will
perish, even if the church of England should follow
the fate of her Asian sisters. But why should the
English protestant episcopal communion perish, from
the mere circumstance of her ceasing to be joined in
political alliance with the civil government of Bri
tain ?
The secular rulers of the empire, to be sure, would
cease to make formal bishops ; the patrons of the
establishment, whether lay or clerical, noble or gen
tle, would cease, either to sell or give ecclesiastical
benefices to clerks, in whose call the people who
support, and are expected to hear the preacher, have
no voice. The established priests would cease to
receive immense revenues for not doing the duty of
evangelists ; and the nation at large, would be eas
ed from the galling burden of an oppressive tithe
tax.

ENGLISH CHURCH NOTIONS. 363
But the truly Christian part of that church would
remain, and evangelical clergy and laity would be
found to support it, in purity and in strength ; far
better than it now appears in all its secular splendour
and corruption. In these United States, the Ameri
can-Anglo-Church does not perish, because it has no
political alliance with the civil government ; but it
flourishes in proportion to its evangelism; as do all
Christian denominations, when left fairly to them
selves, and not impeded by a perpetual'bounty,on the
part of the state, for the production of a formal*
worldly, irreligious clergy.
Persons who have never lived out of England, have
no adequate opportunity of knowing how religion is to
subsist, when left to find her own level, without the in
terference, and free from the close embrace of the
civil magistrate. The English people never see Chris
tianity, but as embodied in one dominant state sect,
clothed with power, rioting in wealth, and proscrib
ing, and discountenancing all other denominations ;
which, nevertheless, are compelled to contribute to the
support of the national priesthood, as well as to main
tain their own clergy. In recompense for which,
they are put under the ban of the empire ; the brand
of religious disability is stamped upon them ; and
they are excluded from all equal participation in the
political claims, rights, privileges, and offices of their
country. Under such circumstances, and always seeing reli
gion inseparably blended with state policy, what
can the English people know about the progress of
Christianity, when left entirely to the guidance of its
almighty Author and Head ; and to the evangelical
efforts of his own ministers of reconciliation?
It is quite childish to suppose, that the arm, whe
ther civil or military, of the British, or of any other
government, is necessary to preserve alive the church
of Christ. Its divine Master has promised to be al
ways with her to the end of the world. And he has ¦
always, hitherto protected her, alike against the ne-

364 UNESTABLISHED CHURCH.
farious efforts of all opposing, and against, what is
infinitely Avorse, the unhallowed assistance of all
allied governments.
If the Anglican church establishment were swept
away, there would not be one ray of real religion less
in England then, than there is now. The sincerely
pious members of that church, who are conscien
tiously attached to her external order, form of wor
ship, and evangelical doctrines, would still be pro
testant episcopalians. And only the formal, secular
clergy and laity, who are now devout by act of par
liament, would desert her, if their worldly interests
prompted, and either embrace some other, or no sect,
according to circumstances. Christianity would still
be the common law of the land, and as such, be pro
tected against all gross, overt acts and misdemean
ors,- without the oppressive and wasteful incum
brance of an exclusive national church ; in the
same manner as it is so protected in these United
States. There would be less .bounty for formalism, and a
more effectual demand for real religion; which
flourishes most, with the least possible intermixture
of political rank, ambition, affluence, and intrigue.
The British government would be incalculably stron
ger ; because then the British people would be more
religious, more contented, more united, more loyal,
than they are now, when one-third of the population
is kept in continual exasperation by the gallirig
weight of an expensive state church, and their own
political proscription ; and the other two-thirds are,
daily and hourly, becoming more and more alienated
by the perverse perseverance of their rulers, in fill
ing the national establishment with a formal hie
rarchy and a formal clergy.
The people of the United States generally are
much more unanimously and cordially attached to
their political governments, and social institutions,
than are the inhabitants of the British Isles to theirs.
One main reason of which is, that they are not curs-

SCOTTISH KIRK. 365
ed with that everlasting source of individual, do
mestic, and national discord, a state church.
Dr. Chalmers seems inclined to take it for granted,
that if it were not for the Scottish church establish
ment, Scotland would be a heathen wilderness. But
if so, how is it, that the reverend doctor himself, and
his evangelical brethren, both clergy and laity, bear
so small a proportion, not one-fifth, to the whole form
al body of kirk members? If so, why is there more
evangelism out of, than in the established kirk?
Does Dr. Chalmers deliberately think, that there
would be one single beam of real piety less in Scot
land to-morrow, if the kirk establishments were to
abscond this night ; and the lord commissioner, as
representing the British monarch in the general as
sembly, transferred to some other secular employ •?
ment; and the lay patronage abolished, and the
Scottish people permitted to choose their own pastors?
Listen, for a few moments, to the opinion of some
eminent divines, as to the existence of the church of
' Christ depending upon the continuance of any one
particular sect, or portion of the visible church.
How does the Greek church subsist? asks the
apostolic bishop Home. Like the tree that had
suffered excision, in the dream of the Chaldean mo
narch ; its root indeed remains in the earth, with a-
band of iron and brass, and it is wet with the dew
of heaven, until certain times shall have passed over
it ; at the expiration of which, it may come into re
membrance before God, and again bud, and put forth
its branches,.and bear fruit, for the shadow and sup
port of nations yet unknown. But its present condi
tion is not to be envied or coveted. The Mahom-
medan power has been raised up to be the Pharaoh,
the Nebuchadnezzar, the Antiochus Epiphanes of
these last days, to the eastern churches.
Let those, therefore, that now stand, be watchful,
and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready
to die, lest they also fall. The promise of divine
protection, and of indefectible subsistence, is not

366 BISHOPS HORNE— HORSLEY.
made to any particular church, or churches, but to
the church of Christ, in general ; and as the seven
churches of Asia have long almost wholly disap
peared; and the glory of the Greek church has for
ages been wretchedly obscured ; so may any church
or churches, however flourishing now, be, one day,
equally obscured, and even wholly extinguished and
forgotten. The. promise of perpetual stability, says the
mighty Horsley, is to the church catholic ; it affords
no security to any particular church, if her faith or
her Works be not found perfect before God. The
time shall never be, when a true church of God shall
not be somewhere subsisting on the earth ; but any in
dividual church, if she fall from her first love, may
sink in ruins. Of this, history furnishes but too
abundant proof, in the examples of churches, once
illustrious, planted by the Apostles, .watered with
the blood of the first saints and martyrs, which are
now no more.
Where are now the seven churches of Asia, whose •
praise is in the Apocalypse ? Where are those!
boasted seals of Paul's apostleship, the churches or
Corinth and Philippi ? Where are the churches of 5
Jerusalem and Alexandria? Let us not defraud
ourselves of the benefit of the dreadful example, by
the miserable subterfuge of a rash judgment upon
others, and an invidious comparison of their deserv-
ings with our own. Let us not place a vain confi
dence in the purer worship, the better discipline,
the sounder faith, which, for two centuries and
a half, we have enjoyed. These things are not our
merits ; they are God's gifts ; and the security we
may derive from them, will depend on the use we
make of them.
Let us not abate, let us rather add to,our zeal for
the propagation of the Gospel in distant parts ; but
let us not forget that we have duties nearer home.
Let us of the ministry give heed to ourselves and to our
flocks; let us give an anxious and diligent heed to

AMERICAN DIVINE. 367
theif spiritual concerns. Let us all, but let the
younger clergy more especially, beware how they
become secularized in the general cast and fashion of
their lives. Let them not think it enough to maintain
a certain frigid decency of character, abstaining from
the gross scandal of open riot, and criminal dissipa
tion; but giving no farther attention to their spiritual
duties, than may be consistent with the pursuits and
pleasures of the world.
The time may come, sooner than We think, when
it shall be said, where is now the church of England ?
Let us betimes take warning ; as many as I love I
rebuke, and chasten, said our Lord to the church
of Laodicea, whose worst crime it Was that she was
neither hot nor cold. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Hear also, upon this subject, an American divine,
who equals Home in evangelical piety, and rivals
Horsley in gigantic talent.
The long existence of the Christian church would,
be pronounced, upon common principles of reason
ing, impossible. She finds in «»cn/ man a natural
and inveterate enemy. To encounter and overcome
: tithe unanimous hostility of the world, she boasts no
political stratagem, no disciplined legions, no out
ward coercion. Yet her expectation is, that she shall
live for ever. To mock this hope, and blot out
her memorial from under heaven, the most furious
efforts of fanaticism, the most ingenious arts of states
men, the concentrated strength of empires, have
been frequently and perseveringly applied. The
blood of her sons and of her daughters has stream
ed like water; the smoke of the scaffold and of the
stake, where they won the crown of martyrdom in
the cause of Jesus, has ascended in thick volumes
to the skies. The tribes of persecution have sport
ed over her woes, and erected( monuments, as they
imagined, of her perpetual ruin.
*" Butwhere are her tyrants, and where their empires?
The tyrants have long since gone to their own place ;
their names have descended upon the roll of infamy ;

368 CHURCH OF CHRIST.
their empires have passed, like shadows over the
rock ; they have successively disappeared, and left
not a trace behind.
But what became of the church ? She rose from
her ashes, fresh in beauty and in might. Celestial
glory beamed around her; she dashed down the mo
numental marble of her foes, and they who hated
her, fled before her. She has celebrated the funeral
of kings and kingdoms that plotted her destruction;
and with the inscriptions of their pride, has trans
mitted to posterity the record of their shame.
How shall this phenomenon be explained ? We
are, at the present moment, witnesses of the fact.
This blessed book, the book of truth and life, has
made our wonder cease. The Lord her God, in the
midst of her, is mighty. His presence is a fountain
of health ; and his protection, a wall of fire. He
has betrothed her, in eternal covenant, to himself.
Her living head, in whom she lives, is above ; and
%is quickening spirit shall never depart from her.
Armed with divine virtue, his Gospel, secret, silent,
unobserved, enters the hearts of men, and sets up an
everlasting kingdom. It eludes all the vigilance, and
baffles aU the power of the adversary. Bars, and
bolts, and dungeons, are no obstacle to its* approach ;
bonds, and tortures, and death, cannot extinguish its
influence. Let no man's heart tremble then, because of fear.
Let no man despair in these days of rebuke and blas
phemy of the Christian cause. The ark is launched
indeed, upon the floods; the tempest sweeps along
the deep; the billows break over her on every side.
But Jehovah Jesus has promised to eonduct her in
safety to the haven of peace. She cannot be lost, un
less the pilot perish.. Why then, do the heathen
rage, and the people imagine vain things ? Hear, O
Zion, the word of thy God, and rejoice for the 'con
solation. No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise against
thee irt judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the

EVANGELICAL CURATES. 36$
heritage of the servants of the Lord; and their
righteousness is of me,- saith the Lord.
The deplorable condition of the evangelical clergy
in the Anglican church establishment, is borne tes
timony toby the Christian Observer; the able and
uniform advocate for the necessity, the usefulness,
the importance of that establishment.
In reviewing the Peterborough questions, and ani-
' madverting upon the arbitrary, unresponsible power
given to, and exercised by the' English bishops, in
ejecting licensed curates, according to their own sove
reign will and pleasure, without deigning to assign
any reason for. thus depriving a. man of his bread,
the Christian Observer says : that the case of the es
tablished clergy in England, particularly of those who
are unbeneficed, is quite an anomoly in a free coun
try. A man of adequate learning, of respectable
talents, of irreproachable character, and of ortho
dox sentiments, after proceeding through the usual
academical gradations, may, at the age of twenty-
>*4hree, when it is too late to choose another profes-
sion, or to recall the expense and time consumed
on his education, be rejected as a candidate for holy
ocders, merely because he cannot, in conscience, give
the required reply to eighty-seven questions, the whole
scope of which he may see to be at variance with the
plain meaning of the legally authorized formularies,
which he must also sign, and is willing, ex animo, to
sign, and to abide by.
Now, this difficulty can touch only an evangelical
candidate; for a formalist could swallow, without
once straining, not only bishop Marsh's eighty-seven
questions, but as many 'more, in every diocese, in
England, Wales, and Ireland; his sole object being
to obtain as much clerical emolument, with as little
clerical labour as possible.
But if the candidate be admitted to deacon's or
ders by one bishop, he may still have to encounter
another bishop's fourscore and seven questions, be
fore he can become a priest.. And, when thus fully
47

370 EVANGELICAL PRESENTEES.
Ordained, and rendered for ever legally incapable of
attending to any secular employment, he may be
threatened with another eighty-seven questions, by
a third prelate, before he can obtain a license as a
stipendiary curate in his diocese. Or if he procure
a license, and minister faithfully in a parish during
the greater part of his life, a fourth bishop may come,
with his new code of captious, sophistical, unscrip-
tural questions, and eject him peremptorily, on the
mere surmise, that the curate's gorge is not wide
enough to swallow them all.
* And this may be done, without the bishop assigning
any reason, or alleging any fault against the indi
vidual clerk, whom he casts out to penury and re
proach. This is a system of ecclesiastical tyranny,
upheld and practised in the protestant established
church of England ; such as does not exist in any
other clerical body on earth ; not even in that of pa
pal Rome. Nor does such a system, we are fain to
confess, appear peculiarly calculated to promote
piety, and prevent heathenism among the people of
Britain. Until lately, a presentation to a benefice was
thought to stand upon firmer ground, and that an
appeal lay to the courts of law or equity, from a bi
shop, who refused institution ; so that he must either
institute the presentee without delay, or show legal
cause for his refusal. But, from what passed in the
house of lords, in the session of 1820, in the case of
the Exeter diocesan, Dr. Pelham, and Mr. Jones, it
appears, that this right of appeal is undermined ;
for wherever the testimonials of the presentee are not
signed by clergymen of the diocese, in which his in
tended benefice lies, a bishop's counter signature is
requisite; which countersignature he may refuse,
without assigning any reason.
The " Curate's Act," now embodied in the "Con
solidation Act," empowers a bishop to proceed
" summarily, and without process," subject only to
an appeal to the archbishop, who acts in the same

ENGLISH CHURCH PATRONAGE. 371
summary manner. This compendious method su
persedes all canons, and rubrics, and statutes ; and
the aggrieved individual is not permitted to be heard,
or to plead these statutes, rubrics, and canons ; or,
even to demand what is his offence, by what law he
is condemned, or what evidence is brought against
him. The bishop may privately state his own case to
the archbishop, and the whole be settled summarily,
without the complainant knowing any thing of the
matter, until he learns the result in his own ruin.
Is such an inquisitorial system ? but I forbear ; the
plain matter of fact statement, that such is the sys
tem of ecclesiastical government in the established
church of England, can gain no additional force from
any human comment.
In the review of Mr. Wilson's two sermons on the
late venerable Thomas Scott, the Christian Observer
is equally explicit as to the systematic care which is
taken to prevent the church patronage of England
from straying into an evangelical channel.
The word poverty, says the reviewer, suggests to
us a topic, without the notice of which our observa
tions on the history of Mr. Scott would be very in
complete. Suppose the half cultivated inhabitant of
some barbarous region to visit the obscure village,.
in which Mr. Scott consumed a considerable portion
of his life, what would be his unbiassed, uninstruct-
ed judgment, as to the individual thus consigned to
a narrow parsonage and a petty church, and the
rustic, scanty congregation, who, from Sabbath to
Sabbath, could be collected from the few scattered
cottages around him ?
Would he not pronounce him to be some obscure,
half taught individual, who, by idleness, or igno
rance, had shut himself out, at once, from the attain
ments and the rewards of his profession ? Or, that
if distinguished for the extent and accuracy of pro
fessional attainments, he, by misconduct, or want of
personal virtue, had doomed himself to this domes
tic exile, the perpetual occupation of a spot, almost

372 REV. THOMAS SCOTT.
inaccessible to the approach of friendship ? Or, that
the various governments, under whose eye this theolo
gical exile had long and faithfully laboured, had
fewer rewards to bestow, than worthy claimants of
those rewards ? that theological learning, and per
sonal piety, and pastoral diligence, were such mere
drugs in the modern market, as to invest their pos
sessor with no peculiar claim to patronage ? that
thousands of suitors were pressing around them,
each of whom had fairly earned pre-eminence ; each
of whom carried along- with him, as his title to pre
ferment, — not his skill in political economy, — norhis
dexterity in the sports of the field, or his address in
all the mazes of the dance, or the chitchat of the
drawing-room; but a still more valuable commentary
on Scripture than Mr. Scott's, constructed by the
labours and patience of thirty years, and still more
powerful efforts to defend the outworks, and aug-,
ment the influence of our common faith ?
How would such a wanderer, from distant and
barbarous shores, to the country of justice, and be
nevolence, and political purity, and moral wisdom,
and orthodox religion, be astonished to hear, that
this banished, half fed man, neglected, nay, frowned
upon by his superiors in church and state, and destin
ed to feed upon the husks, while others were devour
ing the grain of ecclesiastical produce, was the best
textuarist in Christendom, and the only living origin
al commentator, at any length, on the whole volume
of Scripture ?
But suppose the barbarian to seek the solution of
this phenomenon, and to ask the cause of the exclu^
sion of this clergyman from all the rewards and dis
tinctions of his profession ; and to learn that his of
fence was, the adhering closely and unequivocally to
the formularies of that church, of which he was the
consecrated champion and advocate ; that there be
ing two interpretations, of which some of the more
mysterious and difficult parts of these formularies
admit, — he adopted that, almost universally adopted

PETERBOROUGH QUESTIONS. 373
two hundred -years since, but now out of favour in
certain elevated quarters; that his only crime was a
guarded, practical, self-denying .Calvinism ; though,
in fact, it was not his Calvinism, but his acceptance
of the evangelical doctrines, not exclusively Calvin
istic but common to all pious men of every various
Christian denomination, that constituted his chief of
fence. Would not our savage justly raise his war-whoop
against the conduct of those who acted thus towards
a man, who had so eminently served the cause of re
ligion and of the church ; because he chose to incul
cate the doctrines of that church on others, in the
same sense in which he, in common with many of their
framers, •believed and subscribed them himself?
Yet such is precisely the history of Mr. Scott. If
he would have abjured the principles in which
Usher, and Hall, Hopkins, and Hooper, lived and
died, he might have risen to distinction and emolu
ment in the English church. But because he saw
with the eyes of those illustrious men, heard with
their ears, and lived in their spirit and temper, he
was left to find his obscure, and, as far as his govern
ors were concerned, his cheerless way to the grave,
without a single taste of those ecclesiastical boun
ties, scattered so prodigally, from day to day, on
many a raw and unfledged aspirant to dignity and for
tune. However disagreed on other points, the persons
among us, says the Christian Observer, who chiefly
possess ecclesiastical patronage, appear to concur in
the plan of endeavouring, by degradation and spare
diet, to stint and starve men out of the genuine prin
ciples of the Reformation ; an object, in promoting
which, the eighty-seven questions of the bishop of
Peterborough will be found particularly useful.
The review -closes with a remark on the awful trust
imposed by the possession of church patronage ; and
a prayer, that God would direct the English govern
ors in church and state, to a right use of their power

374 ENGLISH CLERGY TRAINING.
of promoting men to ecclesiastical dignity and emo
lument. But does the Christian Observer seriously
expect any other than the present direction of the
patronage of the Anglican Church, under the exist
ing system ; in which working politicians are con
stantly making secular bishops, who, very naturally,
promote formal, and proscribe evangelical clerks ?
Or does he seriously think, that such a system is well
calculated, nay, absolutely necessary to promote piety,
and prevent paganism in the British empire ?
I desire to thank God, that in these United States,
there is no power, civil or ecclesiastical, that could, by
any possibility, keep down in poverty and obscurity,
such a man as Thomas Scott. Nothing short of the ini
quity of a national church establishment is competent
to the commission of such a crime. If Mr. Scott had
attached himself to any one of the evangelical com
munions in this country, he would have obtained its
highest emoluments and honours ; because, where
the people choose, as well as pay, their own clergy,
under Providence, a man's piety, talent, learning, and
character, conduct him, in the ordinary course of
human affairs, to eminence and influence. But in a
state church, where the secular government and se
cular patronage are all, and the people nothing, ec
clesiastical preferment never can be directed general
ly into an evangelical current.
Accordingly, in England, as a necessary conse
quence of the intimate alliance beween church and
state, the established clergy are, for the most part,
trained up to their, holy vocation, in the same manner
as to any secular calling ; and generally live, as lay
men do, hunting, shooting, card playing, frequenting
theatres, dancing at, and conducting, as masters of
the ceremonies, balls and assemblies, eating, drink
ing, cursing, swearing, electioneering, and so forth,
according to their means, ability, and inclination;
being distinguished from other mere worldlings, only
by their exterior apparel, and not always even by
that.

FOXHUNTING PARSON. 375
One of these jolly, buckskin, rosy parsons, duly
accoutered in jockey cap and hunting jacket, eagerly
asked an elderly Obadiah, whom he met, if he had
seen the fox, or knew which way he went ? " The
fox," replied honest broadbrim, " is in a place where
thou never goest :" where — where is that ? rejoined
the clerical Nimrod, tell me instantly, that I may find
him. To the which old drab-colour answered, " in
thy study, friend."
Doubtless, there are honourable exceptions to the
general rule; doubtless, besides
" These whipping clerks, that drive amain,
Through sermons, services, and dirty roads,"
there are in that vast body of established ecclesias
tics, many men of great capacity, intense industry,
and extensive learning; and above all, some evange
lical ministers, who faithfully discharge the high du
ties of their sacred office ; and may the Great Head
of the church, not the king of England, nor the arch
bishop of Canterbury, nor the whole hierarchy in
the house of Lords assembled, nor the cabinet minis
try, seeing that they all seem bent upon any thing,
rather than the promotion of evangelism, but the
Lord Jesus Christ, in the benignity of his Almighty
providence, augment the number of those faithful
pastors, that Ms flock may be fed, and nourished, and
enlarged. But that the great majority of clergy, under that
ecclesiastico-political establishment, where, from the
very commencement of the Reformation, in the reign
of Henry the eighth, the maxim has been laid down,
that the king is pope in England, should be formalists
and worldlings, seems to be a necessary consequence
of the unnatural alliance between church and state,
and the pernicious system of individual and secu
lar patronage ; converting the whole Anglican ec
clesiastical establishment into a well organized
scheme of political machinery, and ministerial ma
nagement ; instead of being, what it ought to be, a

376 EVANGELICAL PREACHING.
church and clergy,, dedicated to the service and
glory of God ;: and to promoting the interests of the
Redeemer's kingdom, by preaching earnestly and
continually, to their perishing fellowrsinners, the all
important doctrines of repentance, faith, obedience,
and love.
.Felix, quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum. It
would be of incalculable benefit, both to priest. and
people, if the American-Anglo-ChurCh could be in
duced to avoid the formal wreck rock of her esta
blished mother in England ; and incite her own mi
nisters to compose and preach regular series of ser
mons, on the essential and distinguishing doctrines
of revelation. For example, — original sin, human
depravity, spiritual, not baptismal regeneration, the
plenary atonement, justification by faith, the sancti-
fication of the Holy Spirit; and all those peculiar
tenets, which every evangelical denomination in the
Christian church considers as of vital importance,
to be believed, promulgated, and practised.
Such preaching, with the scrupulous avoidance of
all controversy, both in and out of the pulpit, in re
lation to the extreme, debatable points of every
systematic creed ; and supporting every position ad
vanced, by apt citations from the oracles of God,
and from the truly evangelical articles and homilies
of the Anglican church ; would materially tend to
their own spiritual instruction ; to the edification of
their flocks ; to the strengthening and adorning of
the church of Christ ; to the extension of the borders
of the Redeemer's kingdom.
Such preaching alone, well seconded by a faithful
and vigilant discharge of pastoral duty, can give to
the American-Anglo-Church a level ground of equal
ity, in numbers, influence, efficiency and power, with
those other religious denominations, which proclaim
the unsearchable riches of the everlasting Gospel, in
purity, zeal, and strength.
To which add, as an essential part of clerical in
struction, the continual evangelical exposition of the

• CHURCH OF GOD. • 377
Holy Scriptures, as the great statute book of Chris
tianity ; as containing an inspired account of the
church of God, through all its various dispensations,
patriarchal, Jewish and Christian ; in relation to the
Stupendous scheme of human redemption ; in subordi
nation to which, the Whole material universe,, with all
its elements of earth, and air, and flood, and fire, and
all its living agencies and movements, was created ;
and will be preserved and directed by the hand of
Divine Providence, until the consummation of all
things; when the heavens shall be rolled togethe*
as a scroll, and all the beauties and glories of this
visible creation will be swept away.
But so long as formalism infests the church, and
Substitutes hebdomadal essays of cold, diluted, se-
mipagan, unsanctioned ethics, and a full reliance up
on external order, forms, ceremonies, and rites, in the
place of the essential doctrines of the cross, and
earnest, faithful, pastoral visitation ; so long will she
continue to languish, and decline, and fall fearfully
below the level of other Christian denominations.
The only possible method of restoring her vitality,
strength and beauty, is to bring her back to the great
standards of the Reformation; to cause her clergy to
tread in the footsteps of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer,
Jewel, and of their faithful followers and successors,
Hall, Hopkins, Pearson, Usher, Beveridge, and a
thousand other bright and burning lights, whose la
bours illumined the church, and gladdened the hearts
of all sincere believers in the mysteries of godliness ;
who, being long since dead and mouldering in the
silence of the sepulchre, yet speak with most miracu-
lqus organ; and whose works will contiuue,.as a
path way of light, to direct all those who in single
ness of heart and in humility, seek the truth in
Christ, until the tide of time shall be swallowed up
in the ocean of eternity.
Not now to urge the eVils of the collegiate system,
Which is still too prevalent in the American-Anglo-
Church, and which, almost of necessity, precludes
' 48

378 ENGLISH CHURCH PREACHING. •
the appearance of. the same preacher in the pulpit,
twice in succession, and consequently allows no op
portunity of connected theological instruction; there
are very seldom heard in that church, even where
the collegiate, cureless disease does not prevail, any
other sort of sermons, save only isolated, detached
essays, on single texts. Seldom indeed, are there
any regular series of sermons on the great vital doc
trines ef Christianity; as revealed in Holy Writ, as
embodied in the articles and homilies of the Angli
can Church, and as distinguished from a mere
scheme of human ethics. And equally seldom is
there any regular exposition of the Word of God ;
without which, it is not easy to discern, how any con
gregation can be built up ; nay, even grounded in
the knowledge of those things which belong unto
their everlasting peace.
Nor is it less difficult to imagine, how a preacher
will be able to excuse such awful omissions of most
important duties, at that day, when the Judge of the
quick and the dead shall allot to every one his eter
nal, unchangeable portion. And too seldom is per
formed regular pastoral duty; that diligent domestic
inspection of the souls committed to the care of their
spiritual shepherds ; in the neglect of which duty, no
church has ever yet thrived in spiritual mindedness,
and holy practice.
The cold, lifeless, formal, unevangelical preach
ing of the great body of the established English
clergy, has long been proverbial to the whole world.
Even the most decent of these clerical formalists dole
out Sabbatical discourses, dry, methodical, and un-
affecting, with a delivery most calmly insipid; so
that if the peaceful preacher should perchance peep
over the pulpit cushion, which alone he seems to ad
dress, he might discover, that his audience had
taken refuge in sleep from the monotonous hum of
their clerical instructer. •
A large portion of the English national clergy do
not even affect to preach their own sermons ; they ei=

READY MADE SERMONS. 379
ther transcribe those already in public circulation ;
or, what is very common, use those which are print
ed, as if they were manuscripts, with their appro
priate blottings and erasures,. . Such being constant
ly on sale by the booksellers in London, at the* mo
derate price of less than two dollars a dozen.
This second-hand mode of clerical instruction is
not. new. Mr. Toplady mentions it as existing when
he was quite a young man. In a letter, dated Fe
bruary, 1775, he says, — in the spring of 1762, a
month or two before I took deacon's orders, I was
cheapening some books of Osborne, Dr. Johnson's
bookselling friend. After that business was over, he
took me to the farthest end of his long shop, and in a
low voice, said — " Sir, you will soon be ordained ; I
suppose you have not laid in a very great stock of
sermons, I can supply you with as many sets as you
please ; all originals, very excellent ; and they will
come for a trifle."
My answer was, — I certainly shall never be a cus
tomer to you in that way ; for I am of opinion, that
the man who cannot, or will not, make his own ser
mons, is quite unfit to wear the gown. How could you
think of my buying ready made sermons? I would
much sooner, if I must do one or the other, buy ready
made clothes. His answer shocked me; — " nay,
young gentleman, do not be surprised at my offering
you ready made sermons ; for I assure you, I have
sold ready made sermons to many a bishop, in my
time." As facts are the most irresistible of all arguments,
it may be well to adduce a specimen of this mode
of reasoning, in order to show forth the condition of
the evangelical clergy in the English church establish
ment, in consequence of the appointment of politi
cal, formal bishops by secular governments.
A recent act of parliament, called the consolida
tion act, passed in the year 1817, and which embo
dies, and enlarges the principal provisions of the
statute of 1796, gives an unlimited, unresponsible

380 REV. MR. BUGG.
power to every English bisjhop, over the unbeneficed
clergy in his diocese. ' Dr. — — , who was made a
bishop, because he had been college tutor to Mr.
Pitt, was not slow in availing himself of the despotic
authority vested in him by this pernicious act, to
crush every spark of established evangelism that
might happen to glimmer in his diocese. He has more
than once driven the reverend Mr. Bugg out of his
diocese, because he refused to believe, nay, com
pletely refuted the popish doctrine of baptismal re
generation. The last time, not long since, this evangelical
preacher was driven from Lutterworth; from the
very pulpit, where the venerable Wickliff first pro
mulgated these same Scriptural doctrines, so offen
sive to the pelagian nostrils of so many of the modern
lords spiritual of the Anglican Church. Mr. Bugg's
own pamphlet, written, to be sure, in a style of suf
ficient irritatiqn, as of one smarting under a sense of
flagrant oppression, gives a full account of the treat
ment which is now systematically inflicted on the
evangelical portion of the English national clergy;
that little portion, whose sole crime it is, faithfully to
promulgate the protestant doctrines of the Reforma
tion, as they are expressed in the public formularies
of the Anglican Church.
Another evangelical curate this same ungodly
prelate silenced, for going to hear a dissenting mi-
•nister preach; an unauthorized, invalid, Mncovenant-
ed preacher. If this be a fundamental, deadly sin,
the late eminently pious bishop Home ought to have
been unfrocked ; for he was in the habit of hearing
the methodist preachers hold forth in his own dio
cese. Early in the year 1 820, this same modern Laud
sent the following notice, at the instigation, it is sup
posed, of a neighbouring diocesan, who hates all
evangelism, with as perfect a hatred as Hildebrand
himself could do. The notice was addressed to the
reverend Mr. C~  , the curate of a living held by

REV. DR. STUART. 381
the honourable and reverend Dr. Stuart, brother of
the earl of Galway, and well known as a faithful
evangelical pastor, and visiting missionary in the Ca-
nadas ; an apostolic minister, who has left all the al
lurements of birth, and rank, and fortune, and cle
rical preferment in England, in order to plant the
standard of the cross in the Canadian wilderness.
The bishop's truly episcopal notice to Mr. C. was,
in substance, that his manner of celebrating divine
service gave offence to sober minded persons, and,
therefore, he should cease from preaching in the pa
rish where he now officiated, and should not take
any other curacy in the diocese ; but in considera
tion of his own extreme poverty, and his numerous
family, he might continue in his present curacy until
next Lady-day, (March 25th, 1820,) provided he
would immediately give up his Wednesday evening
lecture and prayer meeting.
As soon as it was known that the bishop had sent
this peremptory mandamus, all the adult parishion
ers, male and female, in the parish where Mr. C. of
ficiated, signed and sent to their diocesan a strong
memorial, setting forth their decided attachment to
their exiled curate, and showing how much the
church had prospered under his faithful ministration ;
and concluding with an earnest petition, that their
beloved pastor might not be driven away from them.
This memorial sealed the luckless curate's doom ;
that the people of the parish which he served were
attached to, and prospered under, his ministrations,
only quickened the antichristian zeal of B  pa
lace, and the decree of positive suspension was im
mediately issued. Is there not sufficient ability, with
sufficient inclination, in the evangelical portion of
the church of England, to rescue this unprotected
advocate of Gospel truth, from the persecuting fangs
of prelatical formalism? or, must he bcdriven into
the ranks of evangelical dissenterism, where, as the
law note stands^ no thanks to lord Sidmouth, neither

382 BISHOP TOMLINE.
the British government, nor its state bishops, have
any power to crush Christianity ?
The British government has not yet given to its bi
shops the same uncontrolled power over its incum
bent vicars and rectors, as over the unfortunate cu
rates and presentees, in their respective dioceses. If
it had, doubtless, the late venerable rector of Aston
Sandford, in Buckinghamshire, would, long since,
have been expelled from the diocese of Lincoln, for
his evangelical sermons, his " Force of Truth," his
" Theological Essays," his " Family Bible," and all
his other eminent labours in the service of his bless
ed Lord and Master.
Bishop Tomline would have found it much easier
to drive the excellent Thomas Scott out of his church
living, than to answer his " Remarks," on what, with
characteristic arrogance, the prelate calls " a Refuta
tion of Calvinism." It is much easier, says Mr. Scott,
to say, that Calvin's attachment to his system was
blind, than to refute that system. Probably, Calvin
spent more years in studying the Scriptures, with .-
constant prayer for the promised teachings of the
Holy Spirit, than many who exclaim against him and
his doctrine, have done months, nay, weeks. To se
lect passages, in a measure exceptionable, from such
copious works as those of Calvin, may not be very
difficult ; but to follow him in his train of argument,
from one end to the other, even of one of them, and
satisfactorily to answer him, hie labor, hoc opus est.
The British government has only to fill all its se
veral sees with formal, secular bishops, and give
them the same statute power over vicars and rectors,
as it has already given over curates and presentees ;
in other words, to subject the beneficed clergy of the
establishment, to the same despotism that is exer
cised over its wnbeneficed clerks ; and it will soon
have its state church completely cleansed from every
vestige of piety and holiness; will soon reduce that
church, for which the saintly Edward laboured, and

AMERICAN TOMLINES. 383
Cranmer burned, and the noble army of martyrs
died, to the level of the temple of Diana at Ephe
sus ; or the pantheon at Rome ; or the pagodal car
of the homicidal Juggernaut.
But then the British government must not marvel
at the rapid growth of dissent ; nor at the approach
of that hour of retribution, when a Christian people
will shake from off their indignant shoulders, like
dew drops from a lion's mane, the burden, and the
pollution, and the iniquity of a heathen church, how
ever intimately connected with, and subservient to,
the political movements, schemes, and plans of a
secular empire.
Our own American Tomlines, to be sure, owing
to an unlueky little clause in the constitution of the
United States, can derive no power, either from Con
gress, or from any of the state legislatures, to drive
away out of their dioceses, and consign over to na
kedness, and hunger, and barren sorrow, and desti
tution1, any misadventured wight in the protestant
episcopal church, who may happen to preach the
Gospel, in conformity to the doctrines revealed in
Holy Writ, and contained in the liturgy, articles, and
homilies, which he solemnly subscribed at his ordi
nation. But what they can, they do, ex animo, with all their
heart, in this labour of love. A celebrated Italian
anatomist, of modern times, laments, that "prae ini-
quitate temporum," he is not allowed to dissect living
men, and, therefore, is obliged to content himself
with cutting up live grayhounds, and other inferior
animals. So our Tomlines and Marshes pathetically
complain, that, through the iniquity of the times, in
this uncivilized republic, they cannot walk pari passu,
with their thrice worthy brethren in England ; but,
as far as they dare, they openly and avowedly dis
countenance all approach towards evangelism, by en-#
deavouring to heap every species of opprobrium on
those who preach the doctrines of grace; those doc
trines, to establish which, our great protestant re*

384 PRAYING PUNISHED.
formers gave their throats to the knife of papal, per
secuting, pelagian Rome.
The wisdom and the wit of our American-Anglo-
Church formalists are put in constant requisition
against the evangelical clergy, and find copious vent
in proscribing them as " canticle men, Calvinists, me
thodists, schismatics* enthusiasts, fanatics, presby
terians," — and a long muster roll of other appella
tions, equally damnatory, and equally consistent.
But as the paper quillets of the brain break no
bones, recourse is sometimes had to arguments*
more substantial than can be forged in the mere ar
mory of wit. Not very long since, one of the pres
byters in the American-Anglo-Church was arraigned
before his diocesan convention, for the deadly sin of
holding prayer meetings in his congregation. An old
lay delegate, not himself any great dragon of evan
gelism, but a long headed, clearsighted, forecasting
politician, perceiving the evil consequences of such
an unwise, intemperate, unchristian accusation, put
an end to this pitiable chapter of puny, paltry per
secution, by observing, that this was the first in
stance in the United States, of a man's being had up
before a religious body for praying.
This is not the only instance of the defeat of eccle
siastical oppression in the American churches, by
the superior wisdom, and more tolerant disposition
of the lay delegates.
To all formalists of every age, and either sex,
whether clerical or laic, both in these United States
and in England, I would recommend the concluding
periods of Mr. Scott's " Remarks" on Bishop Tom-
line's " Refutation." And now, says the venerable
champion of evangelical truth, at the close of this
work, I may, perhaps, assume some measure of con
fidence not unlike what the very title of his lord
ship's book contains. I am confident, that I have
demonstrated the doctrines, commonly called Calvin
istic, though not every tenet of Calvin, to be those
of our liturgy, articles, and homilies; and of the re-

FORMALISM DEPOPULATES. 385
formers, both before and after Mary's reign, who
compiled them ; and I call on the opponents of Cal
vinism to disprove this, if they can, by fair quota
tions, and substantial arguments, for assertions must
go for nothing. I trust I have also shown them to
be the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, both in the
Old and New Testaments.
But before I close, I would drop one hint. If, in
deed, the doctrines in question be those of our esta
blished church, and if its rulers should, in general,
proceed on the plan adopted by some of them;
namely, that of discrediting as much as they can, the
most pious, laborious, and competent clergymen,
who hold them. If, when one of these is removed,
they make a point of substituting in his place a man
of discordant principles. If they discourage, as to
ordination, the most exemplary, regular, and unexcep
tionable men, in all other things ; even if suspected,
by reason of their connexions and friendships, of
holding these sentiments ; and prefer men of far in
ferior talents, learning, and even moral character;
will they not, with their own hands, subvert the esta
blishment ?
Could a shrewd dissenter, if admitted as an unsus
pected privy counsellor, give them more appro
priate advice, in order to accomplish his purpose of
gaining an ascendancy to the dissenting interest ?
They who have been used to hear the evangelical
doctrines, in which the question, what must I, a lost
sinner, do to be saved? is constantly asked, and clear
ly answered ; if they attend to it, they will never
after endure another doctrine, in which this question
is not answered to their satisfaction. However at
tached to the establishment, they will, at length, seek
at the meeting that instruction which they cannot
find at church ; and though this, at first, be the only
inducement yet becoming acquainted with dissent^
ers, and hearing all their objections ; having, at the
same time, no one at hand to answer them ; they
will gradually imbibe the esprit de corps, and per-
49

386 THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.
haps at length become more zealous dissenters than
they to whom they join themselves.
Thus, hundreds often become dissenters, simply
by the removal of an evangelical clergyman, and the
substitution of a formalist in his place ; who has the
mortification of officiating in an almost empty church ;
while his sole relief consists in declaiming against
Calvinists and dissenters, which makes the case still
worse. All this would be prevented, if a competent evan
gelical man were appointed, if not as rector, yet as
curate, to succeed one of his own sentiments; and
the formalist were more comfortably provided for
elsewhere. And unless it be vainly supposed, that
authority can crush the whole party, this would be the
more politic conduct.
Again, a young man, who desires the ministry as a
good work ; pro officio, not pro beneficio ; who can,
without hesitation, declare, that he thinks himself
moved by the Holy Ghost, to take this office upon
him, will never, finally, give up his object. If exclud
ed from the church, what he counts ill usage, will
weaken his attachment ; his objections to the dis
senting cause will proportionally abate ; and he will
gradually be led to enter the ministry among the dis
senters. And as these things, considering what hu
man nature is at the best, cannot but tend to alienate
his mind from those who have been unkind to him,
and to attach it to those who are kind, the heart hav
ing a vast effect on the judgment, it will not be won
derful if, at length, he becomes a zealous dissenter,
and the champion of the party against the church of
England. Thus, some of the most pious, able, and even
learned of our young men, having received a univer
sity education, in order to be ministers of the esta
blishment, may be thrown into the opposite interest,
and spend all their lives, and talents, in a manner
unfavourable to her predominance in the nation.
Qur danger, therefore, is more from within, than from

EVANGELISM FILLS JT. 387
without, whatever numbers may suppose ; far more,
from our own negligence and impolicy, than from the
machinations of any adversaries.
Mr. Scott is emphatically correct in this statement,
that formalism is the deadly plague, which, if not
stopped, must infallibly destroy the Anglican Church
establishment. The resistless proof of this awful
fadt is inscribed in large and legible characters Upon
the face of her whole history. From that fatal hour
when Laud first carried her over from the truly
Scriptural doctrines of her liturgy, articles, and ho
milies, into nominal Arminianism, but real formalism,
she declined rapidly ; and other denominations gain
ed ground upon her, in spite of her borrowing, with
close and bloody imitation of papal Rome, the aid
of the secular arm ; in spite of her persuasive argu
ments, drawn from the star chamber and from parlia
ment, in the forms of pillory, scourge, dungeon, and
gibbet. Her declension through so long a period, was por
tentous of her approaching dissolution, when, in the
reign of George the second, a revival of religion
took place in England ; and some evangelical clergy
men appeared in the establishment, preaching the
great doctrines of the Reformation, from which Laud,
like Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel
to sin, had seduced her into the idolatries of popery,
and into the blasphemies of Pelagianism. The
blessing of God has crowned the labours of these
faithful men, who, notwithstanding the efforts of some
modem worthy prelatical followers of Laud, to crush
all evangelism in the church of England, are increas
ing ; and are, we pray, and hope, the instruments in
the hand of Jehovah Jesus, destined to save that
venerable church from sinking amidst the ruin and
the pollution of formalism.
These evangelical clergy always fill their church
es to the overflowing, and other denominations make
no headway in their parishes ; while the formalists

388 TWO ENDS OF PREACHING.
enjoy the unenviable privilege of preaching to a
beggarly account of empty pews ; and of railing,
long and loud, against all dissenters, who, by these
profound divines, are all stigmatized as Calvinists,
this being the present fashionable, formal term of
reproach against all serious persons, as that of method
ists, was, a few years since ; however varying from
each other in faith and doctrine through all the
shades of difference, from supralapsarianism, down
to the modern threadbare tissue of infidelity and im
piety, cloaked in its multiplicity of names, whether
Socinianism, or unitarianism, or humanitarianism, or
necessarianism, and I know not how many other isms.
The two main, legitimate ends of Christian preach
ing are, the conversion of sinners, and the edification
of saints; both of which objects the formalists are so
ingenious as to escape altogether. For as they pro
fess to believe in the exploded popish tenet of bap
tismal regeneration, which assumes, that sprinkling a
little water into the face of an infant, and making the
sign qf the cross on its forehead, will wash away all
sin, and turn a sinner into a saint ; according to
them, there can be no such thing as the conversion of
sinners by the renewing influences of the Holy
Ghost, of which the Scriptures, both in the Old and
New Testaments, are so full ; and on which all Gos
pel ministers, of every various denomination, so
strenuously insist.
And as for edifying the saints, or evangelical pro
fessors, formalists neither have, nor desire to have
any intercourse or acquaintance with such persons.
On the contrary, they are continually reviling and
loading them with what they think, the most oppro
brious appellations ; as fanatics, enthusiasts, schis
matics, and so forth. The very term saints, is here,
as in England, a never failing signal for the sardo
nic smile of formalism ; and that too, from men,
whose church calendar is crowded with saints, and
whose churches generally bear the baptismal name
of some saint, ancient or modern.

RETARDED PROGRESS. 389
So that, what with the labours of the formalists, in
endeavouring to steer equally clear of the conver
sion of sinners, on one hand, and the edification of
saints, on the other ; far more terrible to them, than
were Scylla and Chary bdis to the ignorant mariners
of old ; it is not very marvellous, if their Sabbatical
effusions altogether escape the imputation of awak
ening sinners from the sleep of death ; of convicting
he hardened unbeliever; of comforting the afflicted;
of strengthening the feeble; of proclaiming the glad
tidings of salvation to the unregenerate millions of a
ruined world ; of pointing out the road to heaven,
and leading the way thither, by a living faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, as God, their infinite sacrifice-—
God, their everlasting righteousness, God, their all
prevailing intercessor. ....
The real cause why the American-Anglo-Church
is so fearfully in the wake of other denominations,
presbyterian, congregational, baptist, and methodist,
is to be found in tbe prevalence of formalism in her
clergy. The ostensible reasons given for this woful
inferiority, are, that episcopacy was in bad odour with
the American citizens, during and after the revolu
tionary war ; and that its church order is not so con
sonant with the institutions and habits of a republic,
as are those of presbyterianism and independency.
But quite sufficient time has now elapsed to qua
rantine away the infectious taint of toryism, which was
supposed to hang about episcopacy during the stormy
p*eriod of the revolution; and episcopalians have
shown themselves to be, in word and deed, as good
citizens, in every relation, social and public, as the
members and professors of any other religious per
suasion. And certainly, there is nothing in the ge
nius and spirit of the Christian religion* under what
ever form of external church order it may be admi
nistered, that militates against any form of civil so
ciety; provided, the particular sect adhere faithfully
to the pure principles and precepts of the Gospel ;

390 OF AMERICAN-ANGLO-CHURCH.
and provided also, it be altogether unconnected with
the state, or body politic.
No ; — these are not the reasons why episcopacy
halts, pede claudo, behind the other Christian sects.
Its lameness is owing to the leprosy of formalism,
which taints its lifeblood, shrinks its sinews, and
corrupts its carcass. Wherever formalism prevails
in any American church, there is no possible demand
either for piety, or talent, or learning, in the ministers
of that church.
No bounty for piety ; because formalists proscribe
every thing in the shape of evangelism, with as much
venom, though, thanks to the law of the land, not
with so much physical force and power, as ever did
the monsters of papal iniquity, in Europe's darkest
night of superstition, ignorance, and clerical despot
ism. No bounty for talent or learning ; because, in
dependently of the controlling influence of piety, which
may be, and often is given to the highest talents, and
most extensive acquisitions ; and when given, would
prompt its possessor to preach Jesus Christ, and him
crucified, in preference to leading myriads of armed
warriors to victory ; or to shaking senates with the
thunder of eloquence ; or to guiding a nation in pros
perous triumph through the thorny mazes of intri
cate policy ; because, independently of the controlling
influence of piety-, the provision for clergy of all de
nominations in this country, is too moderate, to induce
high talent and extensive learning, to crowd into the
clerical calling ; when a civil, or military, or naval,
or commercial direction of that learning and that ta
lent, wrould lead to the loftiest public honours, to
the acquisition of wealth, influence, authority, pow-
er, reputation ; all that the prince of this world has
to bestow, upon the votaries of an unregenerate,
unsanctified ambition.
Doubtless, in every section of the Christian church,
where evangelism pervades the pulpit, it will never
want piety, talent, and learning in its ministers ; nor

CLERICAL FORMALISM. 391
where these ministerial requisites are present, will
there ever lack numbers of people hastening to en
rol themselves under the banner of the cross.
The American-Anglo-Church, therefore, must re
main inferior to other denominations in clerical pie
ty, talent, and learning, so long as it continues to
m ake formalism the God of its idolatry ; seeing, that
formalism hates all evangelical piety with a perfect
hatred ; darkness having no fellowship with light,
nor Belial with Christ ; and seeing also, that there is
not a sufficient bounty to draw great talent and great
learning, without piety, into the service of the
church. If formalism be so ruinous to the established church
of England, which has all the aid and influence, that
immense revenues, coupled with the protection and
patronage of the civil government, can give ; how
much a fortiori must formalism be pernicious to the
best interests of the American-Anglo-Church, which
only stands on the same level ground of political
privilege and right, with every other Christian deno
mination ? Whence the resistless inference, that the
protestant episcopalian never can equal other com
munions in piety, talent, learning, and numbers, un
til her clergy, generaUy, preach the truly evangelical
doctrines of their own articles and homilies.
This church must be brought back to the great
standard doctrines of the Reformation, or she will
inevitably decline; malgre the assertions and de
nunciations of her formalists to the contrary. The
proof of this fact is so obvious, that he who runs may
read ; namely, that whenever the protestant episco
pal clergy, whether in the United States or in En
gland, preach the Gospel, their churches are crowd
ed ; and whenever they preach formalism, they drive
all pious people into other denominations ; retaining
only the carnal, careless, secure, unawakened pbari-
sees and worldlings ; who occasionally saunter into
church, if the weather be good, or they have no other
engagement, or it be morning,

392 SABBATICAL INDULGENCE.
One of the slenderest of clerical formalists is re
ported to have put on a sufficient quantity of com
pelled valour to hint this to his meagre congregation.
He told them, that they were all very good Christians,
and in a fair way for the heavenly kingdom ; that
they had all been regularly baptized, many of them
confirmed, and some of them been occasionally at
the holy communion ; but that most of them seldom,
if ever, came to church in the afternoon ; which was
not quite right, though, to be sure, it was very natu
ral to sit a little longer at table after dinner, on Sun
day, and indulge in the innocent recreation of an
extra glass of wine ; which doubtless would be over
looked by a merciful God, who always accepts sin
cere, though imperfect obedience.
How well all this little puling theology, respecting
the due observance of the Sabbath, answers to the
Scriptural requisitions of Jehovah himself, may be
seen by consulting the book of Exodus, or the pro
phet Isaiah.
But, quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem,
Testa diu ; — perhaps the foul and feculent tide of
formalism has run its course so long in the Anglican
establishment, that little short of the eighth Harry's
arm is requisite to cleanse the Augean stable. What
is there in the primitive aspect of the venerable church
of England, apart and separate from her unnatural
union with the state, to discourage or deter Chris
tians from seeking spiritual refuge in her maternal
bosom ? She came out at the day dawn of the Re
formation, from amidst the darkness and corruption
of popery, purified by blood and fire. She has framed
a most evangelical standard of faith and doctrine.
She has sent forth from her teeming loins the most
learned body of clergy the world ever saw, and has
diffused light and life over all the habitable globe,
by her Bible societies, her missionary institutions*
her religious tract associations, and her Sunday
schools. And she can only fall from her ancient and
high estate, by the formalism of her priests and peo-

UNLEARNED CLERGY, 393
pie, marring her beauty, staining her holiness,
quenching her existence.
It is moreover not possible for the American-Anglo-
Church to possess a body of able and learned clergy,
until her formalism be merged in evangelical Chris
tianity ; because an unregenerate, unawakened laity,
consisting of mere worldlings, are generally satisfied
much after the manner of the papists, that their
church order, their bishops, priests, and deacons,
their baptismal regeneration, their communion, to
which all are indiscriminately admitted, however
profane, or irregular, or profligate may be their
lives, will carry them safely through, as a matter of
course, without any material trouble on their part,
and without much pulpit help. Whence, at their
occasional visits to the church, they do not pay any
Very great attention to the performances of the
preacher. And where there is no demand in the
market for talent, or learning, or any other commodi
ty, it will never be brought to market.
No valid objection to this position can be drawn
from the fact, that the Anglican Church establish
ment is full of formalism, and yet numbers many able
and learned clergymen ; because independently of all
piety that state church offers a sufficient bounty for
the attachment to her service, of the highest talents,
and the most extensive erudition in her emoluments,
her honours, her influence, her power. The arch
bishopric of Canterbury is as great a stake for which
the secular ambition of an irreligious man may throw,
as is the lord high chancellorship of England, or the
supreme command of the British armies ; or the un
controlled guidance of the vast and complicated po
litical movements of the British empire.
But in these United States no such clerical stake
exists ; the pay of the clergy is too little, and their
political influence still less, to induce, where the in
citement of piety is wanting, first rate talents, and ex
traordinary acquisitions, to ertlist themselves in the
service of the sanctuary. 50

394 AMERICAN-ANGLO-CHURCH PERFORMANCES.
And What is the fact? does the American-Anglo-
Church exhibit in her clergy an average of talent and
learning, in any assignable proportion, comparable
to the talent and learning displayed by other reli
gious denominations ? Where are her Edwardses,
and Davieses, and Dwights, and a thousand other
brightly burning luminaries, that have shed an im
perishable lustre upon the presbyterian and congre
gational persuasions? Where are her theological
treatises ; her series of sermons on the great, the dis
tinguishing doctrines of Revelation ; her Biblical dis
quisitions ? What has she hitherto produced ? Lit
tle, very little, except some mewling, mawkish, mise
rable controversy about external churchmanship.
It is a deep stain upon the American- AngloTChurch,
that she alone, of all the compacted religious bodies,
has degenerated into extensive formalism. While the
presbyterians, of every various shade in doctrine, dis
cipline, and government, have continued, as Calvin
ists, faithfully preaching the systematic creed con
tained in their respective confessions ; and while the
Wesleyan methodists, as Arminians, have preserved
me system of Scriptural instruction, handed down to
them by their great founder and leader, too many of
the protestant episcopal clergy have grievously
swerved from the high standard pf their own evan
gelical articles, homilies, and liturgy ; to which may
the great Head of the church bring them back with
all convenient speed.
As the case now stands, we are constrained to ac
knowledge, that the preamble of the preface to the
homilies, as published in the year 1562, is still too
applicable; it runs thus: —
"Considering how necessary it is, that the Word
of God, which is the only food of the soul, and that
most excellent light, that we must walk by in this
our most dangerous pilgrimage, should, at all con
venient times, be preached unto the people ; that
thereby they may both learn their duty towards God,
their governors and their neighbours, according to

PROSPECTS OF AMERICAN-ANGLO-CHURCH. 395
the mind of the Holy Ghost expressed in the Scrip
tures ; and also to avoid the manifold enormities
which heretofore, by false doctrine, have crept into
the church of God ; and how that all they which are*
appointed ministers, have not the gift of preaching,
sufficiently to instruct the people which is committed
to them ; whereof great inconveniences might arise,
and ignorance still be maintained, if some honest re
medy be not speedily found and provided."
It is an important consideration, that if the clergy
of the American-Anglo-Church, generally, and faith
fully, proclaim the evangelical doctrines of their own
public formularies, they have it in their power, event
ually, to encircle more millions of souls within the
protestant episcopal communion, than have ever yet
reposed within the pale of the Anglican establish
ment ; seeing that, ere long, the American population
must fill up the immense territory which stretches
from Maine to the Floridas, and from the Atlantic
to the Pacific ocean ; and seeing also, that the doc
trine and discipline of the church of England, when
sincerely taught, and wisely administered, have
never yet failed to gain numerous converts, and to
preserve them within her spiritual fold.
With respect to the burdens under which the Bri
tish nation, at present, staggers, and reels to and fro
like a drunkard, the question is not now, if those
burdens be necessary ; if the}' be the unavoidable price
paid for having delivered England, Europe, the uni
versal world, both civilized and savage, from the
most horrible and ignominious of all human despot
isms ? But the imperative question is, if the rulers of
Britain be not bound to endeavour to conciliate the
affections of all the British population ; from whom
they annually take full one-third of their whole in
come, one-third of the proceeds of the productive
industry and talent of the whole nation ?
And then follows another question; is this desir
able object to be attained, by keeping at least one-
third of the whole British population in a state of

396 BRITISH BURDENS.
continual exasperation, under a system of religious
disabilities, and political proscription; while the
best feelings and affections of the remaining two-
•thirds are incessantly outraged by having a formal
state hierarchy, and a formal state clergy, fastened
upon them by the studied, systematic misdirection
of the national church patronage ?
That the financial pressure of the British empire
is felt by her governing statesmen, is evident, from
an observation dropped by the earl of Liverpool, in
the house of Lords, when lord Holland pressed the
administration to require satisfaction from the Ame
rican government, on account of general Jackson's
having put to death Ambrister and Arbuthnot, two
British subjects. Lord Liverpool replied, that it
was easy for gentlemen in the opposition to clamour
for redress ; but suppose the republicans refused to
listen to the requisition of Great Britain, were the
gentlemen of the opposition prepared with the funds
necessary to carry on a new war ? for if they were,
his majesty's ministers were not.
It seems strange, that the premier of a mighty
empire, and a disciple of William Pitt, should have
made such an open avowal of veritable weakness.
Certain is it, that such puling shrieks of feeble la
mentation would not have issued from the lips of the
great Chatham, or his greater son.
Many respectable jurists in these United States ex
pressed their opinion, that general Jackson's conduct
was a violation of international law ; and the senate
of the United States also, by a committee, reported
strongly against his acts. But when lord Liverpool's
speech reached this country, the National Intelli
gencer, the government paper at Washington, re
published it, without one. word of comment, and
every mouth was hushed in relation to general Jack
son ; but the American people, generally, were much
elated at what they deemed the fearful reluctance of
Britain to engage in another conflict with this federa
tive republic.

AMERICAN FEELINGS. 397
It might be as well to notice, in passing, an idle
opinion entertained in Downing-street, that a con
siderable quantity of British feeling still exists among
the people of the United States. Now nothing can
be more vain, than to expect any European attach
ments from those who are born upon this immense
continent. The chief objects of every native Ameri
can, after bettering his own condition, are to aggran
dize his country; to drive all Europeans out of this
western world ; to federate the two Americas, north
and south, making the United States the head and
soul of the great general confederation ; and, event
ually, to dictate the law to Europe, and to the world.
Doubtless, there is immense wealth in Britain ; but
it is confined to comparatively few hands ; the monied
and the landed aristocracy, who labour incessantly,
by the system of entails and strict settlements, to
prevent the general diffusion of property throughout
the nation. Hence, thegreat-mass of the people are
sunk in penury, and consigned to a continual struggle
for a scanty subsistence.
There is also an abundance of wealth in these
United States ; but it is more equally divided. The
occupiers of the land are generally /reeholders of the
soil they cultivate; and not mere renting farmers as
in England, where tithe tax and rent keep the agri
culturalists always in straits. The capitals, gene
rally, are moderate, and widely diffused. Few of
the native Americans are very poor ; and such is the
demand for labour, both of the hand and of the head,
that every industrious person, in any vocation, can
command a full share of the necessaries and comforts
of life.
In February, in 1822, the Earl of Liverpool said,
in the House of Lords, that the whole national income
of Britain amounts to two hundred and eighteen
millions sterling. Of this, the state, the church and
the poor, annually consume at least one-third; leav
ing only two-thirds to maintain the population, and
carry onward the productive industry of the empire.

398 NO CARRIAGE HORSES.
The consequence is, that all the people are put
upon short allowance. Even the great personages;
men possessing incomes of from five to fifty thousand
pounds sterling a year, have voted it to be unfashion
able to keep carriage horses ; by which manoeuvre
they escape not merely the expense of supporting
those animals, together with their due accompani
ment of coachmen and grooms, but also the burden
of taxation, which is peculiarly heavy upon all these
articles. This fact is, in itself, a conclusive proof of the
universal pressure in England. Some few years since,
it would have been thought an exceeding meanness
in the English nobility and gentry not to keep their
own carriage horses ; as much for show and splen
dour, as for convenience. But the enormous public
t debt, and the all-pervading taxation, compel every
order of society in England to economise. It is, how
ever, want of patriotism in the overgrown aristocracy
thus to shrink from their proportion of the national
burdens ; which, in consequence, fall with accumu
lated weight upon the lower classes, who are less
able to bear them.
The agricultural distress of England is too notorious
to the whole world, to require a detail of particulars
respecting it. But I must be permitted to dwell, for
a moment, upon the situation of my own native coun
ty, whose localities and recollections must ever be
dear to my heart. In the year 1821, Mr. Eylott gave
in evidence, before the committee of the House of
commons, that he knew, within the seven preceding
years, fifty farmers renting altogether twenty-four
thousand acres of land, in the little county of Dorset
alone, reduced from competence to penury; some
being daylabourers, others in the workhouse, and
others in gaol for debt. The report of that commit
tee shows the agricultural distress to be general
throughout the whole kingdom.
In the great debate upon this subject in the im
perial parliament, in February, 1822, various schemes

AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS. 399
were proposed to alleviate the distress, and much
talk was made about over-production, modifying the
corn laws, and lending the farmers money on good
security. But the only means of diminishing the uni
versal pressure upon England, is to lessen the tax,
tithe, and rent, which are crushing the whole popu
lation to the earth beneath their combined weight.
There is a small sophism running its round through
a certain class of politicians in England, namely :
that the amount of the public debt unpaid, about four
thousand millions of dollars, is nothing, because it is
due in Britain, to British, and not to foreign stock
holders. But in consequence of this immense debt,
one-third of the whole national income is swallowed
up in annual taxation ; and is it no difference to a
man, whether he himself spends his own income, to
acquire which he has unremittingly toiled, or the
government expends it for him ? The main incite
ment to human industry is the hope of using and
enjoying its fruits ; not of seeing them consumed by
an expensive, and, therefore, an oppressive govern
ment. The aristocracy of England, however, seems to
opine otherwise ; for it was stated in the hquse of
commons, last winter, that an English earl,' then re
cently dead, had left in his will £500 a year to his
youngest son, until the government should give him
a larger income. This is, indeed, fastening the
younger branches of the aristocratic families as bur
dens upon the people of England, from whose toil
these sinecures are to be wrung. Is it not enough,
that the English nobility and gentry enjoy so great a
monopoly of the bishoprics and benefices of the state
church ? but that they must also entail their younger
sons as pensioners upon the civil list?
The wages of the. English peasantry average be
tween six and seven shillings sterling a week; say,
a dollar and a half; equal to seventy-eight dollars
per annum. But of this the government, for itself
and its state church, takes pne-third, or twenty-six

400 , ENGLISH PEASANTRY.
dollars, leaving fifty-two dollars for the labourer's
yearly maintenance; of which at least twelve dol
lars are paid for cottage or room-rent, leaving less
than one dollar a week to purchase food, clothing,
and fuel for himself, his wife and children.
Their food generally consists of potatoes and
tea. The duty on tea for the year 1821, amounted
to thirty-five millions of dollars, which was adduced
in the debate on the agricultural distress, by the mi
nistry, as a proof of the flourishing state of the nation;
that is to say, old England is in a flourishing con
dition, because her grown up labouring men are fain
to swallow black tea for lack of beer ! Animal food
is almost entirely out of the question, as making any
part of the provender of the English peasantry;
nay, even wheaten bread constitutes but a small
portion of their aggregate provision. What would
our American labourers, who expect animal food
for breakfast, for dinner, and for supper, together
with some kind of fermented liquor and coffee twice
a day, think of such a dietetic regimen, as that to
which the great body of the English population is
reduced ?
The British government has, for some years past,
virtually acknowledged its inability to employ or to
support its home population, by its various schemes
and plans for promoting emigration to the Canadas,
the Cape of Good Hope, and Botany bay ; with what
success must be left to time and the hour to deter
mine. The game laws of England are almost as great a
curse upon the nation as the poor laws themselves.
They erect every landed gentleman in the country
into a petty tyrant on his own domain. If a farmer
sec a hundred hares, or pheasants, or partridges,
eating up his wheat fields, from the produce of which
he ia expected to pay his rent, tithe, and taxes, he
dares not touch one of these vermin. And if any
poor man wire a hare, or knock down a pheasant or
partridge, not with a gun, for it is unlawful for the

GAME LAWS. 401
English people to have any firearms in their pos
session, he is fined five pounds, and put into gaol
for the first offence, and transported to Botany bay
for the second.
In March, 1 822, there were twenty men lodged in
Dorchester gaol, for this crime of poaching. Twen
ty human beings incarcerated in one little county
prison, at the same time, for killing game ! During
the last winter, it was stated in the house of com
mons by a member, that in Bury gaol, in the county
of Suffolk, there were confined several labourers,
who had poached in the open day, for the purpose
of being apprehended; they deeming it a less evil
to be immured in prison, where they must be fed, to
starving at home, for want of employment, and the
means of subsistence.
Why cannot game be considered as private pro
perty, so long as it remains on the land of any indi
vidual ; which would prevent a multiplicity of dis
putes, and abolish a code of feudal oppression ? As
the case now stands, the numerous army of game
keepers and poachers continually supply the En
glish markets and taverns with game, fill the prisons
with poachers, apd confound the whole country with
affrays and bloodshed.
England has, surely, quite enough to struggle with,
in her enormous load of public debt, her bloody but
inefficient penal code, her universal burden of tax
ation, her severe pressure of excessive rents, and
excessive tithes, and her cancerous systems of the
game and poor laws, gnawing into her very vitals,
without the additional and stiU greater curse of the
gbvernment persisting to perpetuate, to the utmost
extent of its power, the formalism of the national
church establishment.
In Ireland, things are even much worse. The
great body of the people in that country are literally
reduced to nakedness and famine, by the united ef
forts of the tax gatherer, the middle man, and the
tithe proctor. Take, for example, the situation of
51

402 CONDITION OF IRELAND.
a single parish in the county of Cork ; without one
resident landlord, or magistrate, or curate ; without
one gentleman, protestant or papist; and without a
church ; yet the inhabitants are compelled to pay
both tithes and church rates.
As a specimen of the manner in which the Irish
tithe system is carried into execution, it was mention
ed in the house of lords, in February, 1822, that in
a parish in Tipperary, a tithe proctor charged a
farmer thirty pounds, when the incumbent clergy
man demanded, and actually received, only eleven
pounds. Lord Liverpool, on this occasion, said, that
the British government would investigate the subject
of tithes in Ireland; but he protested stoutly against
any attempt to meddle with the tithe system in En
gland ; as it was intended to continue that benedic
tion for the benefit of the English agricultural in
terest. In the house of commons, during a debate on the
same subject, it was distinctly admitted by the admi
nistration, that neither religion nor politics had any
share in the existing disturbances of Ireland. Which
is true ; for the intolerable pressure of the tithes, the
taxes, and the rents, has driven the Irish peasantry
into insurrection, as a less evil, notwithstanding the
perspective of a contingent gallows, than remaining
quietly at home to die a lingering, but certain death,
by hunger.
With respect to the religious disabilities, under
which so large a portion of the British population
labours, I cannot do better than to refer to the splen
did speeches delivered by Mr. Canning in the house
of commons, in the month of April, 1822.
In the year 1678, Titus Oates, by a series of the
most horrible perjury, induced an English house of
commons to countenance his tale of a popish plot ;
for pretended concurrence in which several persons
were executed, and among the rest lord viscount
Stafford, a popish peer, venerable alike in integrity
and age. An act was also passed to exclude popish

MR. CANNING  MR. PEEL. 403
peers, in future, from sitting in the house of lords,
where they had regularly sate for one hundred and
fifty years subsequent to the Reformation.
This statute of the English parliament, founded
in perjury and blood, Mr. Canning moved to repeal ;
and thereby restore to the popish peers their privi
lege of sitting as hereditary legislators in the house
of lords. The university of Oxford, the great nurs
ing mother of the Anglican Church establishment,
presented a petition against repealing this iniquitous
act, by the hands of her representative, Mr. Peel,
the secretary for the home department, and one of
the cabinet patrons of the national church.
Mr. Peel opposed the repeal of this statute in a
speech replete with pitiable sophistry, utterly un
worthy of his acknowledged abilities and eloquence.
Does the university of Oxford think, that a state
church cannot be supported, unless she is buttressed
up by proscription and penalty ? by statutes stained
with perjury and murder ? What is the avowed, the
ostensible use of a national church establishment ?
is it not to make the people religious and moral ?
And is this done by inflicting pains, and penalties,
and political disabilities upon all who differ from her
in opinion about the external form and order of ec
clesiastical government and discipline ? Let the
present actual state of religion in the established
church answer.
Mr. Canning himself is a stanch church establish
ment man, and throughout his whole speech, calls
the dissenters by the invidious appellation of "sec
taries ;" yet, without once adverting to the subject in
a religious point of view, he contends, that it is di
rectly opposed to sound policy, for the British govern
ment to continue these political disabilities. For
himself, said the illustrious orator, he felt little com
fort, that, on approaching the table, he was obliged
to take such oaths, as not only did not qualify him
the better to become a legislator, but taught him
to feel he was giving pain to millions of his fellow-
subjects.

404 RELIGIOUS DISABILITIES.
As little comfort did he feel, when discussing with
papists the duties they owed, and the love they
bore the British constitution, that the talisman of its
beauty was held to be their exclusion; and the
splendour of all its charms, that they were not allowed
the participation of its blessings. It was too much to
expect of any loyalty, that depression and exclusion
should make it more alive to the condition of a state,
in which it gained its votaries and practitioners no
corresponding reward. It was not to be expected,
that you should eye a mine without a wish for gold ;
that you should exercise an extraordinary forbear
ance in the midst of oppression; that you should re
joice in a constitution, which denied you its advan
tages ; that you should expend your blood and trea
sure in support of a system in which you had no
participation. It was not to be hoped, that the su
perfluity of enthusiasm and loyalty would be ex
pended" in support of that from which they were
excluded. Mr. Canning's bill having passed the
commons, was rejected by a majority of forty-two, in
the house of lords. Proh pudor.
The reasoning of Mr. Canning, so far as the test
act reaches, applies equally to the protestant dis
senters of England, as to the papists of Irelsnd;
making together, at least, one-third of the British
population, which is excluded from office, civil and
military, in order to secure an odious monopoly to
that very established church, which they are compelled
to contribute towards supporting, at the very time
that it excludes them from all office. It is quite na
tural for a secular government to consider a national
church establishment as a mere political machine,
to be directed in entire subservience to state pur^
poses. But then, what becomes of the position, that a
church establishment is necessary to promote piety,
and prevent heathenism in a nation ?
Taking it, however, as a mere political machine,
an important question arises ; if it be worth s© large

STATE CHURCH INEFFECTUAL, 405
an annual price of money, and intolerance, and per
secution, and irreligion ?
Omitting all considerations, drawn from their own
personal religion, or from any particular views of
theology, which they may entertain, and putting the
matter simply on the ground of human policy, it is
incumbent on the rulers of Britain to pause awhile,
ere they finally determine to persist in exasperating
one-third of the entire home population, by continu
ing their present system of religious disabilities, and
political proscription ; and to persist also, in alienat
ing the affections of the rest of the people, by la
bouring incessantly to render the whole of the esta
blished church of England, formal, secular, and irre
ligious. If the tide of popular opinion be once borne in a
general current against the English government,
that government cannot stand. The national bur
dens imposed upon the people of England are suf
ficiently heavy to render them impatient, if the con
duct of their rulers shakes the confidence of the na
tion in the sincerity and wisdom of their measures.
Every very expensive government is, unavoidably,
and of necessity, an oppressive government; because
it continually trenches upon the comforts and con
veniences, nay, the very subsistence of the people.
Which is emphatically the case of Britain now ; and
therefore demands from her rulers, measures that
may conciliate and soothe, not exasperate and alien
ate, an oppressed and staggering population.
It is high time for the British government to learn,
what the British people pretty generally know, that
their state church is not only not calculated to pro
mote the cause of pure religion, but that it does not
even serve the inferior purpose of preserving a specu
lative orthodoxy. For, from the time of Laud's apos
tacy to the present hour, the great body of the es
tablished clergy have not held the doctrines of their
church articles, whether construed in a Calvinistic,
or an Arminian sense. . Indeed, the Peterborough

406 FORMAL AND PERSECUTING 
questions, issued by an English bishop, professedly
lay the axe to the root of all evangelism, whether
Arminian or Calvinistic.
The great body of the English state clergy have,
for ages, taught only a diluted, nominal Christianity;
whence, as Mr. Wilberforce truly observes, in his
invaluable book, " that unseemly discordance, which
has too much prevailed between the prayers which
precede, and the sermon which follows."
The great, the inherent evil of a church establish
ment is, that it engenders and perpetuates formalism.
In wnestablished churches, formalism merely de
pletes and diminishes the sect, which can only be
revived by its recurrence to evangelical preaching.
But the civil government upholds a formal state
church, as a mere political machine, when its reli
gion is extinct, until both church and state are
whelmed in one common ruin.
The evangelism in the church of England, which
has been the mean, under Providence, of hitherto
preserving that church from perdition, is not owing to
the establishment, whose rulers, both civil and spirit
ual, are incessantly labouring to crush it out of ex
istence. The British government systematically ab
stains from making evangelical bishops ; and formal
bishops invariably discountenance and persecute
evangelical clerks. What proportion do the evan
gelical bear to the whole clergy in the Anglican es
tablishment at this time. In all probability, not two
to eleven thousand ; not so many, positively, as were
ejected by Sheldon on the Bartholomew day ; and,
relatively, much fewer, because then the population
of England and Wales did not reach four, whereas
now it exceeds twelve millions.
The increase of evangelical clergy in the Anglican
establishment is studiously stopped, both by the civil
government and the hierarchy directing their pa
tronage into a formal channel; and denouncing all
evangelism as hostile to church and state. Whence
a continual augmentation of dissenters, to the mani-

AND WEAKENS GOVERNMENT. 407
fest terror of established formalists. The diffusion
of education, and the distribution of the Scriptures
in England, have created an increased appetite,
both for knowledge and religion, among the lower
orders of the people ; and neither of these desires
can be answered or satisfied by the general formal
ism of the national church establishment ; whence
they must tend to swell the ranks of infidelity, where
the thirst for knowledge is unsanctified by religion,
or, of dissent, where it is accompanied with seri
ousness. Both of which events are unfavourable to
the extent and duration of the dominion of the es
tablishment. If the labours of Wesley and Whitfield, and their
associates and followers, and at a more recent pe
riod, the pen of Mr. Wilberforce, have been honour
ed instruments in the hand of God, to produce re
vivals of religion in the church of England, these
revivals are not owing to the establishment, which,
as a state church, regularly discourages and proscribes
them, from the highest hierarch down to the lowest
formal stipendiary curate. And, at this moment, to
how many of the higher and middling classes of En
glish churchmen do not Mr. Wilberforce's observa
tions apply with undiminished force and truth?
The fair and natural inference from all this is,
that the Anglican Church has less religion, and less
Influence, in consequence of being a state church,
and therefore secularized and formal, than she would
have, if left to herself, to thrive only by her own
evangelism, instead of being encumbered by the
help of the civil government and lay patronage.
At all events, it is most obvious, that the establish
ed church of England as at present constructed and
guided, very materially diminishes the moral and
disposable strength of the British empire ; by conti
nually exasperating, because it politically proscribes,^
a large portion of the talent, wealth, industry, and
influence of the nation; by grieving and dishearten
ing the comparatively few serious persons within the

408 EVANGELISM INCREASING.
pale of her communion, in consequence of devoting
her enormous patronage to the service of formalism;
and by offering a perpetual bounty for the general
irreligion and profligacy of the remainder of the
home population of England.
I have not forgotten the auspicious increase of
evangelism in Britain, during the last five and twen
ty years ; but hail it as the surest pledge of Jehovah's
blessing on her ; and that He will preserve and pros
per her as a nation, and make her an instrument in
his hands, to diffuse the light of everlasting truth to
the remotest recesses of the habitable earth. Most
cordially do I participate in the feelings of the apos
tolic William Ward, upon this subject, as expressed
in his farewell letters.
After an absence, says this truly evangelical mis
sionary, of twenty years from England, it was to be
expected, that the great moral changes of so con
siderable and so remarkable a period ; the success
ful attempts to revive the unity and energies of the
primitive age, and the formation of so many benevo
lent institutions ; would produce a very strong and
delightful impression on the mind of such an exile.
I recollect, that as soon as I set my feet on board.
the Criterion, in 1799, on my way to India, to join
Mr. Carey and Mr. Thomas, residing there since
1793, I lay down on a seat upon the deck to read
the voyage of the Duff, then recently published.
The Bible Society, with its auxiliaries, and still
more interesting associations; and numerous other
institutions, which have entitled the age in which we
live, to be denominated the suttee joog, the age of
truth ; did not at that time exist, ft was impossible
then not to exult in observing, on my return, the pro
gress of the kingdom of Christ, in a country endeared
by every youthful recollection, and rendered still
dearer by absence, so long an absence ; and by the
painful contrast between the land of Bibles, of Chris
tian temples, Christian ministers, and Christh n insti
tutions, and a land full of dead idols, heathen tem-

BUT .NOT OWING TO STATE CHURCH, 409
pies, priests, abominable idolatries, and containing
one hundred millions of idolaters.
When I left England, the peculiar doctrines of the
Gospel had not been preached, I believe, in the five
established churches at Derby since the time of the
puritans. I was happy, however^ to find, on visiting
this my native place, in 1819, that two of these
churches had recently been blessed with clergymen
who followed the apostolic rule. 1 Cor. ii. 2.
To find, on my return, in the establishment, so many
labourers, doing the work of evangelists, and a mis
sionary society, increasing daily the extent and the
sacred energy of its operations ; to perceive the
great increase of dissenting and Wesleyan methodist
chapels, and the vast additions to their societies;
to see the pious members of Christian churches vi
siting the benighted villages, and thus dispersing the
last remains of heathen darkness in England ; to see
rising in every part of the country institutions well
suited to remove ignorance, profligacy, and misery,
the whole of the pious youth in Britain, engaging in
these truly Christian efforts; and to recognize, amidst
all this increasing ardour, so much Christian liberal
ity and union ; how could such an exile, surrounded
with summer scenery like this, help exclaiming,—
is this the country of my nativity ? Thou shalt no
more be termed forsaken ; neither shall thy land any
more be termed desolate ; but thou shalt be called
Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah ; for the Lord de-
lighteth in thee.
But these inestimable blessings are not owing to
the national church establishment of England ; for
that establishment, with an immense majority of its
bishops, priests and deacons, have uniformly oppos
ed all these efforts, whether directed to evangelize
Britain herself, or the other nations of the earth.
That established state church has invariably dis
countenanced the British and Foreign Bible Society,
and the church missionary society ; to sav nothing of
52

410 WHICH PERSECUTES EVANGELISM.
its inveterate hostility to all dissenting and method
ist efforts in the cause of evangelical truth.
Hence the fact, so degrading to the character of
the established church of England, that she has done
infinitely less towards evangelizing the heathen,
whether at home or abroad, in Britain or elsewhere,
than has been done by the Moravians, the baptists,
the methodists, the independents and the presby
terians. As a specimen of the light in which the English
established clergy generally regard evangelism, take
the lucubrations of the Rev. Mr. Polwhele, vicar of
Manaccan and St. Anthony, in Cornwall, and a prin
cipal writer in the Antijacobin Review ; a journal
instituted and continued for the express purpose of
upholding and strengthening the united interests of
the Anglican church and state.
In the year 1820, Mr. Polwhele put forth a new
edition of bishop Lavington's " Enthusiasm of me
thodists and papists compared," with his own intro
duction, notes, and appendix, in which this beneficed
clergyman has raked together a loathsome mass of
ribaldry, that would disgrace a brothel ; and belched
forth a volume of blasphemy, that would raise a blush
on the cheek even of Hone or Carlile. Yet this
chaste, this prudish vicar, is a stout champion of the
English church establishment; and shows spasms of
horror at the alarming progress of schism, in these
days of degeneracy and darkness !
Of course, he hates the Wesleyan methodists, with
a perfect hatred, because they, generally, as a body,
from the time of their great founder to the present
hour, have evidenced an evangelical faith and a holy
life; nor is he less rancorous against the orthodox
dissenters, for whose benefit he intimates that he
could mend the toleration act, after, the fashion of
Lord Sidmouth's model. But he dips his pen in the
doubly distilled venom of the damned, when he raves
against the evangelical clergy in the national church
establishment.

REV. MR. POLWHELE. 411
"• Our own Gospel preachers," says he, " are really
greater enemies to the church, than the most malign
opposers of her." He constantly reviles them as
" gospellers ;" and declaims loudly against those
very few colleges, in Oxford and Cambridge, " that
pay particular attention to the education of Gospel
ministers." He solemnly warns the heads of the
universities themselves, " to watch over them, and
check the slightest tendency in their youth to evan
gelical irregularities." No caution is given against un-
evangelical irregularities ; Mr. Polwhele, doubtless,
coinciding in opinion with those reverend gentlemen,
who expelled Erasmus Middleton and his associates
in the year 1768, while they acquitted Mr. Welling;
that blasphemy, and bawdry, and drunkenness, are
better pillars of support to the university of Oxford,
and the established church of England, than praying,
and singing hymns, and expounding the word of God!
The evangelical clergy in the Anglican church,
who are labouring for the conversion of the Jews, he
calls "Judaising gospellers;" and thc?>e who are
zealously employed in promoting the conversion of
the pagans, he calls " Gentile gospellers ;" and both
parties appear to be equally offensive to this bene
ficed clerk, and sworn champion, of the established
church of England.
Contributions to the British and Foreign Bible
Society, and its auxiliary institutions, he places upon
the same level with theft, and robbery, and rebel
lion, and murder; denouncing with equal virulence,
Hunt's female reformers, and those women who col
lect money for the support of Bible associations.
He predicts the most alarming amount of moral
turpitude, and of civil convulsion, from the circulation
of the Scriptures among the poor. The education of
the poor, also, is stigmatized as a nefarious business.
Bell's national schools he cannot tolerate ; and, with
regard to Lancaster's institutionshe does not enter
tain " the slightest doubt, that their grand object is
to puritanize and revolutionize the country.

412 _ MR. WILKS'S POSITION DOUBTED.
As a consistent advocate for English liberty, Mr.
Polwhele lauds to the skies the arbitrary conduct
of that brutal tyrant, Henry the eighth. As a con
scientious clergyman of a protestant established
church, Mr. Polwhele proposes, as a pattern for all
future imitation, the execrable, malignant, popish,
persecuting Laud. Mr. Polwhele, also, has disco
vered the deadly peril of preaching ; for, quoth he,
" it was a remarkable saying, founded on the reason
of things, that a preaching church cannot stand."
Such is the support which evangelism receives
from the great body of the clergy of the Anglican
church establishment ; whether that evangelism be
exhibited in preaching the Gospel at home, or in
sending missionaries abroad, to proclaim the glad
tidings of everlasting life to the unnumbered millions
of perishing heathen ; or, in distributing the pure
word of God, without note or comment, over all the
regions of a world that lieth in wickedness, and is
bursting in sin and sorrow ; or in any other way by
which the limits of the Redeemer's kingdom may be
extended. Verily, these formal, high, exclusive churchmen
are peculiarly qualified to be the firm pillars of a
reeling community, and to win the hearts of all the
English people, as the heart of one man, to the
church, as by law established, and to the civil go
vernment of Britain, which upholds that ecclesiasti
cal establishment, which countenances, and elevates
such clerks !
Is Mr. Polwhele, in due time, to be done into a
bishop by the British government, for his services 4o
the cause of Christianity, and to take his seat on the
episcopal bench, alongside the mitred Tomline,
Marsh, and Mant, the three chief established advo
cates of the pernicious popish doctrines of baptismal
regeneration, double justification, and the merit of
works ?
In fine, notwithstanding the talent, the ingenuity,
and the learning, which Mr. Wilks has displayed in

ANTICIPATION OF 413
endeavouring to support the main position taken in
his valuable work, namely, that a national church
establishment is necessary, in order to promote piety,
and prevent heathenism in a country, we conclude,
that the converse of this proposition is more consonant
with truth and justice, and the universal experience
both of the Christian church and of the world at
large. Much ground yet remains to traverse ; but the li
mits of the present volume are waning to their close.
Hereafter, if permitted by health, which has been
interrupted by an indisposition, that, for, more than
twelve months past, has almost taken away the power
of locomotion, and confined the writer, like an oys
ter, to a single spot, it is intended to glance at the
general conduct of the English state clergy, from the
latter part of the reign of Charles the second, to the
present time; in which will be particularly consi
dered the causes and the consequences of those revivals
of religion, which, originating in the instrumentality
of Whitfield and the Wesley s, have, at intervals, been
occurring ever since, and have invariably received
the deadliest opposition from a very large majority of
the established church of England, including its
civil governors, its hierarchs, and its clergy ge
nerally. The importance and the effect of church order will
be noticed, the Socinian heresy exposed, and the
Calvinistic and Arminian controversies, so far, at
least, as relates to the Anglican and American-Anglo-
Churches, examined ; in which inquiry Dr. Herbert
Marsh's eighty-seven Peterborough questions will
not be forgotten.
^ An extended inquiry will likewise be made into
the origin and progress of that formalism which so
much stains and debilitates the different Christian
churches ; together with some observations on a few
of the principal tenets of the present, prevailing,
fashionable, formal theology ; for example, that there
is no invisible church of Christ ; nothing but a visi-

414 FUTURE LABOURS.
ble, external church ; and no church visible, except
their own ; that preaching the Gospel makes no part
of the public worship of Almighty God in a Chris
tian assembly ; that all private meetings for prayer
and Christian conference, are irregular, fanatical,
and dangerous; that the distribution of the sacred
Scriptures alone, without what Bishop Marsh calls
the due " corrective of the evil," is perilous, and not to
be permitted ; that sending missionaries to evange
lize the heathen, is weak, useless, and foolish, fit on
ly for such enthusiasts as Mr. Polwhele politely terms
" Gentile gospellers ;" and some other modern posi
tions in divinity, alike alien and abhorrent from the
word of God, the public formularies of the Anglican
and American-Anglo-Churches, and the confessions
of all the protestant reformed communions.
I cannot, however, conclude the present volume,
without noticing the two chief doctrines of our fa
shionable modern theology ; to wit, the popish dog
mas of exclusive churchmanship, and baptismal regene
ration. But I desire it to be distinctly understood,
that I have no personal controversy with any man,
about his religious creed. My only aim is to expose
certain prevailing theological opinions, which seem
to strike at the root of all evangelical truth, and to
destroy every inducement to a pure, practical, holy
life and conversation.

CHAPTER IV.

Exclusive Churchmanship.

I repeat, that 1 wish to be distinctly understood,
as not intending aught personal or disrespectful to
any individual, in the following examination of the
modern fashionable theological opinions, and there
fore shall avoid mentioning names, unless necessary
to clear the sense. Far from me, and from my
friends, be the sectarian narrowness and bigotry of
intermeddling with any one's private and peculiar
system of belief;, seeing, that the right of private
judgment, in matters of religion, is of the very es
sence of protestantism, as contradistinguished from
the proscribing infallibility of the popish scheme.
By the way, the Romanists have a pleasant mode
of proving the infallibility of their church. If you
ask, is the pope infallible ? the answer is, no. Is a
cardinal? no. An archbishop ? no. A bishop ? no.
Where then lies the infallibility ? In a general coun
cil of the church, composed of the bishops, archbi
shops, cardinals, and pope. So that a collectiqn of
many fallibles produces one mighty infallibility; in
like manner as a number of naughts, or cyphers,
when added together make one great figure in arith
metic. Let us then briefly glance at soineof the leading
tenets qf modern theology ; for the present, briefly,
because hereafterit is intended to institute a full in*
quiry into the doctrines qf the various protestant re-

416 ENGLISH DISSENTERS.
formed churches ; more especially those of the An
glican Church. Arid occasion will thence be taken
to show why the American-Anglo-Church is so fear
fully in the wake of other religious denominations;
and how the prevalence of formalism has kept her
down in ignorance and weakness in these United
States, as it has depressed her venerable mother in
England, where the different dissenting denomina
tions are rapidly gaining ground upon her ; so that
in 1822, the number of dissenting ministers, of all
arms, is about equal to that of the established cler
gy ; namely, eleven thousand each ; the church con
tinually declining, and the dissenters constantly in
creasing. How many dissenters, think you, would England
now contain, if her national clergy, from the Re
formation to the present hour, had faithfully preached
the Gospel, and diligently discharged their pastoral
duties, instead of quenching their own religion, and
the religion of their hearers, in the dead sea of form
alism, and lighting up the fires of persecution to
the fullest extent of their capacity and power, for
the edification of all those who sought, conscien
tiously, to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit
and in truth ?
The doctrine of exclusive churchmanship ; that is
to say, the assumption of all covenant claim to the
mercy of God in Christ Jesus being confined to epis
copalians ; is strenuously avowed by many writers,
on both sides of the Altantic.
This exclusive churchmanship, in sober Christian
verity, is a doctrine which may possibly be enforced
with the gallows for its second, and the dungeon for
its bottle holder, as in papal Rome, under the be
nignant auspices of Hildebrand, and, as in England,
under the sovereignty of the arbitrary Tudors, and
the dominion of the execrable Stuarts. But in these
United States, whose political institutions permit to
all persons free access to the Bible ; and where no
one is punished by law for believing what God says in

A POPISH TENET. 417
his own revealed word ; very few theologians will be
found with a gorge sufficiently capacious to swallow
these dirtiest of all the dregs of popery.
Nay, if the day ever arrive, when by parish
voting and parish making, or by any other means,
the general convention of the American-Anglo-
Church shall be induced to pass a canon, declaring
exclusive churchmanship to be a fundamental article
of the protestant episcopalian creed ; and if, after
the example of Pontius Pilate, such a canon were
inscribed in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; still the
proof, that this doctrine is either Scriptural, or pro
testant, or accordant with the articles, homilies, and
liturgy of the Anglican Church, would be as much
wanting as it is now, notwithstanding the council of
Trent hath decreed it to be a capital part of Roman
catholic faith.
If this doctrine be a fundamental verity, essential
to true churchmanship, it is a great pity that Cran-
mer, and Ridley, and Hooper, and Latimer, and other
venerable fathers of the English church, did not
know the fact ; for if they had, it would have saved
them the trouble of being burned ; seeing, that pa
pal Rome always cordially embraces as her chil
dren, those who profess belief in this foundation ar
ticle of her catholic creed ; as may be perceived by
consulting the canons enacted by the memorable
Tridentine council.
If this tenet be truly Scriptural, those blessed
martyrs need not have given their bodies to the pop
ish fires in defence of the protestant faith; nor need
they have cemented the foundations of the Anglican
Church with their own life's blood. They had only
to avow their faith in the popish dogma, that salva
tion is exclusively confined to communion within the
narrow pale of their own sect, and they would have
been found very fit supporters of that orthodox high
church woman, the bloody Mary.
It is a pity, that the excellent archbishop Leigh
ton, and the profoundly learned bishop Stillingfleet,

418 ARGUMENTUM AD MODEST1AM.
and an innumerable multitude of other bright and
burning lights in the episcopal hemisphere, have
wanted this essential mark of veritable church
manship. Peradventure, Stillingfleet and Leighton*
not now to mention a thousand other distinguished
champions of the Anglican Church, had examined
this matter as conscientiously, and had brought to
bear upon the subject, as much genuine piety, real
talent, and sbund learning, as have been mustered
upon the same occasion, by any of the modern
champions of this popish plea, and yet they shrunk
with horror, from the impious insolence of wncove-
nanting, nnchurching the numberless millions of
nonepiscopalians, who have ever breathed upon
earth. It is, indeed, passing strange, that our neoteric
doctors, who import their stock in trade of divinity
directly from Rome, should be better churchmen
than those who, by their piety, talent, learning, in
tegrity, life, and death, founded and established the
English protestant church. But it will soon appear
that this is not the only bale of theological merchan
dise which has been imported into these United
States from the papal mart.
The argumentum, ad modestiam ought to weigh some
what with our exclusive divines. The number of
American-Anglo clergy do not exceed three hun
dred, nor their congregations five hundred. Now,
it is an ample average to allow five hundred souls
to each congregation ; especially, if we consider the
actual condition of the many lay parishes in the dio
cese of New-York. There are not then more than
two hundred and fifty thousand churchmen in the
United States ; and these quarter of a million of
episcopalians are the only covenant people of God
out of an American population exceeding ten mil
lions ! ! !
Verily, this species of covenanting, outcovenants
the covenanters themselves, the sturdy partisans of
the Scottish solemn league and covenant ; and old

CONDITION OF SALVATION. 419
Gilfillan and Balfour of Burley must yield the palm
to Charles Daubeny and Samuel Wix, and their fol
lowers on this side of the water.
The Lord Jesus Christ says : "He that believeth
shall be saved." But our theologians clog this gra
cious provision of the Saviour, by annexing the in
dispensable condition of a transit through Trinity
church. Utrum horum?
It is, indeed, high time for all Christians to merge
the j we divino claims of the various religious denomi
nations, whether episcopalian, or presbyterian, or
congregational, in the infinitely more important ob
ject of converting sinners to God, and qualifying them
for heaven.
"Where the Gospel is proclaimed — says a dis
tinguished American divine — communion with the
church by the participation of its ordinances, at the
hands of the duly authorized priesthood, is the in
dispensable condition of salvation. Great is the guilt,
and imminent the danger, of those, who, possessing
the means of arriving at the knowledge of the truth,
negligently or wilfully continue in a state of sepa
ration from the authorized ministry of the church, and
participate of ordinances administered by an irregu
lar and invalid authority. Wilfully rending the peace
and unity of the church, by separation from the mi
nistrations of its authorized priesthood ; obstinately
contemning the means, which God, in his sovereign
pleasure, hath prescribed for their salvation, they
are guilty of rebellion against their almighty Law
giver and Judge; they expose themselves to the aw
ful displeasure of that Almighty Jehovah, who will
not permit his institutions to be contemned, or his
authority violated with impunity."
The same doctrine is repeated again and again,
by another distinguished divine of the same school,
in his " Vindication" of the American-Anglo-Chureh ;
and if these two theologians be right, that God has
made no covenant with any people in the United
States, except the two hundred and fifty thousand

420 UNCOVENANTED MERCV.
bishops, priests, deacons, and laics, so thinly scat
tered over their surface, wo betide the ten millions
of all the other American denominations. For the
scheme of wncovenanted mercy, cannot help the poor
presbyterians, congregationalists, baptists, method
ists, or any other nonepiscopalians ; simply because
no such scheme is to be found in the Bible, which,
uniformly, represents God, as, out of Christ, a con
suming fire, and, in Christ, as reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing to them their trespasses
and sins.
The doctrine of these two high churchmen, then,
is, that all nonepiscopalians are in the broad road
to perdition; their watchword being "episcopacy
or damnation ;" as if multitudes do not obtain both
these benefits ; and as if such a dogma were not of
the very essence of popery !
Tbey, indeed, only follow in the foot-tracks of
another reverend gentleman, who, some years since,
when preaching an ordination sermon at St. Paul's
church, in the city of New- York, declared that all
ministers, not episcopally ordained, are impostors ;
their commissions, forgeries; and their sacraments,
blasphemy. The preacher, probably, did not know
that bishop Prevoost, then the New- York diocesan,
had been baptized by Domine Dubois, a clergyman
of the Dutch church ; and consequently, according
to this uncovenanting doctrine, was unregenerated,
and not a member of the church.
In reference to this doctrine, one of the greatest
divines of the present, or of any former age, observes :
"warrant for this sweeping sentence of proscription,
from the word of God, none has, or can be produced.
To unchurch, with a dash of the pen, all the non-
episcopalian denominations under heaven, and cast
their members indiscriminately into a condition worse
than that of the very heathen, is, to say the least of
it, a most dreadful excommunication; and, if not
clearly enjoined by the authority of God, as criminal
as it is dreadful ?

B0DWELL NONJUROR. 421
"That all those glorious churches, which have
flourished in Geneva, Holland, France, Scotland,
England, Ireland, since the Reformation; and all
which have spread, and arespreading, throughout this
vast continent ; that those heroes of the truth, who,
though they bowed not to the mitre, rescued millions
from the man of sin, lighted up the lamp of genuine
religion, and left it burning with a pure and steady
flame, to the generation following; that all those
faithful ministers, and all those private Christians,
who, though not of the hierarchy, adorned the doc
trine of God, their Saviour, living in faith, dying in
faith, scores, hundreds, thousands of them, going
away to their Father's house, under the strong con
solations of the Holy Ghost, with anticipated heaven in
their hearts, and its hallelujahs on their lips ; that all,
all were without the pale of the visible church, were
destitute of covenanted grace, and left the world,
without any chance for eternal life, but that un
pledged, unpromised mercy, which their accusers
charitably hope, may be extended to such as labour
under involuntary, or unavoidable 'error, and this
merely because they renounced episcopacy; are po
sitions of such deep toned horror, as may well make
our hair stand up like quills upon the fretful porcu
pine, and freeze the warm blood at its fountain."
This sentence has been pronounced upon millions
of the dead and of the living, merely because they
Were not, or are not episcopal. For these theolo-
fians have declared in substance what their famous
fodwell has declared in form : " that the alone want
of communion with the bishop makes persons aliens
from God and Christ, and strangers from the cove
nants of promise, and the commonwealth of Israel."
But this able I and-eloquent writer has not done full
justice to Dodwell. Fpr that honest^ponjufor struck
an octave higher than his disciples in these United
States have yet done. He pushed the popish doe-
trine of baptismal regeneration so far as to assert,
that all infants come into the world without souls;

422 BELIEF IN A BISHOP.
which are infused into them only when a bishop,
priest, or deacon", baptizes them, by sprinkling wa
ter on the face, and tracing the sign of the cross
upon the forehead. All other baptism this strenuous
high churchman holds to be null and void; and,
consequently, all nonepiscopalians, having no souls,
can have no claim upon the covenant mercy of God,
but are left to death and annihilation, like the beasts
that perish.
This doctrine is, perhaps, as absurd, and, certain
ly, more humane than that of the papists and high
flying formalists, who do, indeed, allow nonepisco-
pal people to have souls ; but, in their great Chris
tian compassion and charity, consign those souls to
the bottomless pit, because they lack episcopalian
christening and confirmation.
To say sooth, these wncovenanting doctors do ac
tually make belief in a bishop more essential to sal
vation than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In what
part of the Scriptures do these gentlemen find, that
eternal life is made to hinge upon connexion with
any particular external church order and govern
ment ? The transit of an immortal soul from earth
to heaven, or to hell, depends upon far other grounds,
than whether he was an episcopalian, or presbyte
rian, or congregationalist. The word of God says :
" he that believeth (in Christ, not in the bishop) and
is baptized, shall be saved ; and he that believeth
pot, shall be damned." Hence, faith in the Redeem
ing God is the indispensable condition of salvation*;
notwithstanding our divines place this condition upon
the participation of Christian ordinances at the
hands of themselves and their authorized brethren.
What ! ho ! father Abraham ! said Mr. Whitfield,
when preaching at Philadelphia — whom have you in
heaven ? any episcopalians ? no. Any presbyteri
ans ? no. Any baptists ? no. Have you any method
ists there ? no. Any independents, or covenanters,
or burghers, or antiburghers ? no. Whom have you
then in heaven ? cried the impassioned preacher.

MR. WHITFIELD. 423
We know not any of those names here ; all who are
here are Christians — believers in Christ ; men, who
have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and the
word of his testimony. Is this the case ? continued
the venerable speaker — then, God help me ! — God
bless us all to forget party names, and sectarian dis
tinctions, and bigoted differences, and to become
Christians, in deed and in truth. Amen ! so may it
be, Amen !
This father of the Calvinistic methodists might
have added an apostrophe to another distinguished
personage, and said : " Ho ! Beelzebub ! ho ! Satan !
thou prince of darkness, thou destroyer of the souls
of men! are there any papists in hell? yes. Any
protestant episcopalians? yes. Any independents,
or congregationalists ? yes. Any presbyterians?
yes. Any methodists ? yes. Any baptists ? yes.
Any lay churchmen, teachers, and preachers, and ex
pounders ? yes. Have you any Christians ? no. We
have an innumerable multitude of formalists, and bi
gots, and sectarians, and persecutors of all persua
sions and denominations, of every tongue and name,
and country, in that region, soil, and clime, where
their worm dieth not, and where their fire is never
quenched. But we have not one solitary Christian,
of any age, or either sex."
Who can tell the number of souls that have been
lulled into the sleep of eternal death, by those teach
ers who place the external order of their church, at
hast, upon a level with the merits of the Redeemer,
to proeure acceptance before God ? Nay, as to non-
episcopalians, episcopacy is the first, and faith in
Christ only the second requisite; for, says the writer
above cited-—" whoever is in communion with the
bishop, the supreme governor of the church upon
earth, is in communion with Christ the head of it ;
and whoever is not in communion with the bishop, is
thereby cut off from communion with Christ."
So .then, all nonepiseopalians are incapable qf
faith in Jesus Christ ; seeing that all copmunion with

424 EPISCOPACY — PREBYTERY.
Christ lies through the only open door of communion
with the bishop; whence, all nonepiscopalians live
and die without faith, and belief in a bishop is more
essential to salvation than belief in the incarnate
God. But what shall we say, if it appear that this notion
of the jus divinum of episcopacy is of comparatively
recent date, and actually posterior to a similar claim
on the part of the presbyterians ? The first English
reformers, with Cranmer at their head, never dream
ed of any such pretension ; indeed, they leaned to
the Erastian scheme, and appeared to consider the
church merely as a creature of the state, so far as
respected its external order, government, and disci
pline. Nor was it until some years after Elizabeth's
accession to the English throne, that the episcopa
lians set up this claim, in opposition to a similar pre
tension advanced by the presbyterians.
In the year 1507, a separate congregation was dis
covered in London. During the Marian persecu
tion, some protestants abstained from the establish
ed popish worship, and met together, as a church,
whenever it could be done safely. Finding, on
Elizabeth's accession, that the mass of the national
clergy were those very men who had conformed to
popery under her sister, and assumed to be pro
testants under herself; some of whom had aided in
murdering the martyrs; and that those who desired
a more complete reformation were suspended and
persecsted, they abstained from communion with the
establishment, and still worshipped as a separate
body. A hundred persons were detected, flagrante delicto,
in the very act of worshipping God, in the plumb
er's hall; of whom ten being brought before the
bishop of London, were severely reprimanded. Cart-
wright presented to the parliament a petition for
further reformation ; which produced a controversy
between him and Whitgift, that resulted in carrying
Whitgift to Lambeth, and Cartwright into exile.

WANDSWORTH PRESBYTERY. 425
The puritans, goaded by the tyranny, alike im-
politic atid iniquitous, of Elizabeth and her bishops*
at length resolved to separate from th'e public
churches, and worship God according to their eqh-
sciences, in private houses, or elsewhere. They
formed a presbytery at Wandsworth, near London,
composed of several ministers and gentlemen. Al
first, they objected only to the popish habits of the
clergy, and to certain parts of the liturgy ; then they
proceeded to condemn the Wholfe system of thfe
hierarchy ; and fihally made the discovery that the
presbyterian form of church government and dis
cipline was of divine institution and origin.
Whereupon the churchmen, not Willing to yield
the palm of precedency to dissenters, put bn their
spectacles, and began to discern, that episcopacy
was not merely a child of the state, but art ordinance
of God, derived from apostolic usage. The impious
inference, however, that communion with the bishop
is communion with Christ, and separation from the
bishop is separation from Christ, was not imported
from the Roman into the Anglican Church until a
period much posterior to the first discovery of this
jus divinum of episcopacy.
Some grave and momentous questions Were, many
years since, put to our theologians in relation to this
subject. But, even unto this day, these questions
have received no satisfactory answer.
These two divines were called upon to show, that
there is more bf the truth and efficacy of the Gospel
in their church than in all other Connexions, since
they deny all communion with Christ to nonepisco
palians. The questions run thus : " will you accom
pany us from temple to temple, from pulpit to pulpit,
from house to house, from closet to closet, and agree,
that in proportion as there is little or much of pure
and undefiled religion in them, their rank in the scale
of Christian churches shall be high or low ?
"In the church, which boasts of the only valid mk
nistrations, and the exclusive prerogative of being
54

426 GRAVE QUESTIONS.
in covenant with God, is there more evangelical
preaching; more of Christ crucified; more plain,
close, decisive dealing with the consciences of men,
upon the things which belong to their peace, than
in many of the churches which she affects to despise?
Are her authorized priesthood more scrupulous about
the preservation of pure communion ; do they object
more strongly to the admission of mere men of the
world; and are they more active in excluding from
their fellowship the openly irreligious ? Do they adopt
more prompt and vigorous measures to expel from
their pulpits doctrine which flies in the face of their
avowed principles, and is acknowledged by them
selves to be subversive of the Christian system?
" In this primitive, apostolic church, are the sheep
of Christ, and his lambs more plentifully fed with the
bread of God, which came down from heaven ? Has
she less to attract the thoughtless gay, and more to
allure those who become seriously concerned about
their eternal salvation, than is to be found in hun
dreds of churches, which she virtually delivers to
Satan ? We demand the evidence of their exclusive
fellowship with the Redeemer; we insist upon their
showing", according to his word, the superiority of
their practical religion, both in quantity and quality."
And well might such a demand be made ; for if
there be not more piety within than without the
church, of what profit is the church to the souls of
men? If the American-Anglo-Church be not tho
roughly evangelical, the whole population of the
United States is in a very fearful condition ; because
all out of that church, according to this clerical
theory, have no claim whatever to eternal salvation.
They are all thrust out of the pale of the visible
church of Christ; are all left to the uncovenanted
mercy of God ; have no access to redemption by the
blood of the cross; however entire may be their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as God their righteous
ness and God their strength; however pure and holy
may be their morals, flowing from, and evidencing

ARCHBISHOP WAKE. 427
their faith ; however zealous, constant and effectual
in the conversion of their perishing fellow-sinners to
God, may be their preaching, and proclaiming
the glad tidings of salvation to a lost and ruined
world. Such presumption and arrogance would be ridicu
lous, were it not truly lacrymable, that any one single,
individual protestant can be found in the nineteenth
century, so foolishly fanatic, so basely bigoted, so
unchristian, so antichristian as to advance this rankest
of all thedogmas of popery. And these men, who thus
liberally uncovenant, unchurch, unchristianize all
other denominations, call themselves Arminians ; and
profess to believe, that the Saviour died for all man
kind, including heathens and Mahometans, as well
as Christians ; and certainly, the warriors of the
crescent, and the worshippers of the innumerable
pagan deities, are quite as sturdy nonepiscopalians,
as the presbyterians, or congregationalists, or bap
tists can possibly be.
To countervail the high authority above adduced,
take the following extract from archbishop Wake's
letter to Le Clerc, in which that distinguished prelate
does not scruple to denominate maniacs, all those
who presume to unchurch and uncovenant nonepis-
copal protestants. Listen to the great scourge of
popery, and see, if he countenances this peculiar
doctrine of our modern fashionable theologians.
" Ecclesias reformatas, etsi in aliquibus a nostrS,
Anglicana, dissentientes libenter amplector. Optarem
equidem regimen episcopale bene temperatum, et
' ab omni injusta dominatione sejunctum, quale apud
nos obtinet, et, si quid ego in his rebus sapiam, ab
ipso Apostolorum sevo in ecclesia receptum fuerit, et
ab iis omnibus retentum fuisset ; nee despero quin
aliquando restitutum, si non ipse videam, at posteri
videbunt. Interim absit, ut ego tam ferrei pectoris
sim, ut ob ejus defectum, (sic mihi absque omni in-
vidia appellate liceat) aliquas earum a communione
nostra abscindendas credam: aut cum quibusdam

428 REV. SAMUEL WIX.
fuppsis hjter nos scriptoribus, eas nulla vera ac valida
sacramenta habere, adeoque yix Christianos esse
pronuntiem. Unionem arctforem inter omnes re-
fqrmatos procurare quovis pretiq veljem.^'
I willingly embrace the reformed churches, al
though dissenting, in some respects, from our church
of England. I could, indeed, wish, that a well tem
pered episcopal regimen, without any unjust domi
nation, such as obtains among us, and if I have any
skill in these matters, such as hath been received in
the church from the apostolic age, were retained by
them, all; nor do I despair, but that it will some time
be restored ; if I may not, posterity will see it In
the mean-while, God forbid that. I should be so iron-
hearted, as on account of such a defect, (permit me so
to call, it without offence,) to believe that some of
them should be cut off from our communion, or with
certain maniac writers among us, to pronounce, that
they have no true and valid sacraments; and thus
are, themselves, scarcely Christians. I would pur
chase? Qt any price, a more intimate union among all
the reformed.
If ever the hope of the good archbishop be re
alized, that episcopacy will be universal, it requires
no spirit of prophecy to predict, that its universali
ty will not be forwarded by the efforts of those men,
who preach up their own exclusive claim to cove
nant mercy, and consign all other denominations to
the bottomless pit.
The Rev. Samuel Wix, in his recent proposal
for a reunion of the Roman and Anglican Churches,
for the avowed, very laudable purpose of destroying
the British and Foreign Bible Society, and extermi
nating all protestanl; nonepiscopalians, represents
archbishopWake as a champion of exclusive church
manship, and as preferring papists to protestant dis
senters. Whereas, that able; and, learned primate
entertained: a wholesome abhorrence of all comprof
mise with any popish communion, whether Gallican
or Romap.; and also held a charitable and devo-

DISSENTERS — PAPISTS. 429
iional union with protestant dissenters to be a Chris
tian duty.
The English metropolitan's notions respecting a
union between the Anglican and Gallican Churches,
are detailed at length in Maclaine's Mosheim ; and
the duty of conciliating protestant nonepiscopalians
is urged in the archbishop's sermons, one of which
is devoted exclusively to exhorting mutual charity
and union among protestants.
In this sermon archbishop Wake insists, that the
departure of English dissenters from the church of
England is merely in matters of indifference ; that the
papists alone hold opinions irreconcilable with the
unity and charity desirable amongst Christians ; that
this union and charity, if ever attained, must be
sought by a direct toleration and mutual concession
among the protestant denominations, in the points
about which they differ; and that this Christian union
and harmony, not only may, but will be effected
among the varfous protestant persuasions, in the due
course of time.
He expressly says, " for us, whom it hath pleased
God, by delivering us from the errors and supersti
tions of the church of Rome, to unite together in the
common name of protestant reformed Christians,
were we but as heartily to labour after peace, as we
are all of us very highly exhorted to it ; I cannot see
why we, who are so happily joined together in a
tommon profession of the same faith, at least, I am
sure, in all the necessary points of it, and I hope,
amidst all our lesser differences, in a common love
and charity to one another, should not also be united
in the same common worship of God too.
¦ "¦ This makes the difference between those errors
for which we separate from the church of Rome, and
those controversies which sometimes arise among
protestants themselves. The former are in matters
of the greatest consequence, such as tend directly
to overthrow the- integrity of faith and the purity of

430 REV. DR. BOWDEN.
our worship ; and, therefore, such as are in their own
nature destructive of the very essentials of Chris
tianity. Whereas our differences do not at all con
cern the foundations, either of faith or worship, and
are therefore such in which good men, if they be
otherwise diligent and sincere in their inquiry, may
differ without any prejudice to themselves, or any
just reflection upon the truth of their common pro
fession." Indeed, the main object of this admirable sermon
is, to expose the essential characteristic of a false
and antichristian religion, namely : the desire of un
churching and excommunicating those who differ from
its professors in points not fundamental as church
order and government, rites, ceremonies, and all the
exterior of public worship.
The late Rev. Dr. Bowden, by far the ablest
and most learned advocate for the episcopal order,
that has yet risen in the United States, with a libe
rality and catholic spirit, well becoming a Christian
minister, expressly avows that he neither unchurches,
nor excludes nonepiscopalians from salvation. In
his letters on " the apostolic origin of episcopacy,"
he says : " it is no part of hny creed, that a man can
not be saved who is not an episcopalian. I am not
endeavouring to unchurch other denominations.
" Here, a difference takes place among episcopa
lians ; and we may reasonably expect that it would ;
for the Scripture has said nothing about the conse
quences of the opinion (the divine right of episco
pacy) I am maintaining. What the essence of a
church is, neither presbyterians nor episcopalians
have as yet determined. Upon the question, what
defect unchurches, unanimity is not to be looked for.
Some presbyterians say, the want of a ministry un
churches ; others say, it does not. Some of them say,
that lay baptism is invalid ; others say, no. Some un
church independents and quakers, and some other
denominations. Other presbyterians do not.

UNCHURCHING. 431
"When you shall have the good fortune to agree
among yourselves, what is the precise point at which
a church loses that character, perhaps your dis
coveries will lead episcopalians to unanimity; till
then, we shall not be agreed, whether the divine
right of episcopacy necessarily involves the conse
quence, that denominations which have not bishops,
when it proceeds from necessity, want a valid minis- \
try ; and whether again the want of such a ministry
completely unchurches. Bishop Hall maintained
episcopacy upon the ground of divine right, and yet
he did not think episcopacy absolutely essential to
the being of a church.
" There are two principal divisions of episcopa
lians. One division believe that episcopacy is of
divine right, in that strict sense, that there can be no
valid administration without it. At the same time,
they do not entertain the most distant thought that
the want of it will preclude men from salvation,
when it proceeds from necessity, or from honest er
ror. They believe that such error will be forgiven,
and sincere piety accepted in all, who profess the
faith of Christ. They think, that if episcopacy be
a divine institution, and there can be no church
without a ministry, the inevitable consequence is,
that episcppacy ,is essential to the visible church.
But they say, when the heart is right, that grace,
which is not promised to unauthorized administra
tions, is granted by special favour, so that none will
fail of salvation, when the error is not wilful, or when
necessity excludes men from episcopal administra
tions. "The other class of episcopalians, although they
believe episcopacy to have been instituted by the
apostles, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, yet
do not. consider it as essential to the being of a
church. Presbyterian churches, they consider as
defective, but not deprived of their church charac
ter ; as excusable, when episcopaey.cannot be had ;
as irregular and unscriptural in their ministry, but

482 NATIONAL CHURCHES.
by no means devoid of a valid ministry. They do
not unchurch dissenters from episcopacy ; they do
not place them under uncovenanted mercy ; they
have the same channels of grace open to them that
episcopalians have, and consequently, may be as
good, or better than they, if placed in a more fa
vourable situation."
Thus, Dr. Bowden draws the line of distinction
between the apostolic succession of episcopacy,
and the unchurching, uncovenanting all nonepisco-
pal denominations. Not so the full fledged formal
ist ; with him, the church is all, and Christ nothing;
with him, belief in a bishop is infinitely more mo
mentous than faith in the Son of God.
Let it not be deemed uncharitable to surmise the
possibility of some of the fiercest of these exclusive
formalists, being doomed to lie howling in the midst
of their own church privileges and self righteous
ness, while many of those, whom they so charitably
uncovenant, may be ministering angels to that Lord
of glory, on whose all sufficient sacrifice alone they
suspended their hope of eternal salvation. There
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye
shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all
the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you, your
selves, thrust out. And they shall come from the
east and from the west, and from the north and from
the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
Liberal minded men, indeed, are not prone tq
cherish such a pernicious spirit ; but seize every op
portunity of protesting against this unchristian bi
gotry. Mr. Toplady, in his " Church of England Vin
dicated," says : " nor does it follow that the church
of England, in believing for herself the necessity of
episcopal ordination, does thereby unchurch those
of the reformed churches abroad, which have no bi
shops, any more than that those churches unchurch
us for retaining our excellent and primitive mode of
ecclesiastical government. National churches that
;ire independent on each other, have, respectively,

COVENANT-DILEMMA. 433
an internal right to establish such forms of regimen
as to them seem most scriptural and expedient. And
this indefeasible right may pass into execution, with
out any violation of that Christian charity, and neigh
bourly affection, which ought to subsist between
churches that agree in the common faith of the
Gospel." And Mr. Gisborne, in his " Duties of Men," says:
" it is now admitted by the generality of protestants,
that no command was delivered, either by Christ,
or by his apostles, assigning to the Christian church
any specific, unalterable form of government: but,
that while various offices, suited to the situation and
exigencies of the new converts, were instituted at
the beginning, some of which, as that of deacon
esses, have long fallen into disuse, Christians were
left at liberty to adopt in future times such modes of
ecclesiastical administration and discipline, as they
should deem most eligible, in the circumstances un
der which they should find themselves placedi,"
Mr; Gisborne then proceeds, following- the exam
ple of Hooker, in his " Ecclesiastical Polity," to
show, that the distinction of orders in the church is
well fitted to the gradations of rank in the civil go
vernment of England.
But how do our deep divines establish their posi
tion, that nonepiscopalians have no covenant claim
to salvation, seeing that they do not pretend to ad
duce one syllable from the Scriptures in support of
their theory ? If it appear from the Bible, that God
has promised eternal life to those who believe in
Christ, without putting in any clause of exception
against nonepiscopalians, then they have a claim
upon covenant mercy. And if the Bible contains
such a clogged promise, confining salvation exclu
sively to the episcopal channel, by what authority do
our theologues undertake to assert, that any nonepis-
copalian can escape damnation, since the Scriptures
say nothing about uncovenanted mercy ? and they
both assert, that communion with the episcopal
55

434 CALVINISTIC PRESBYTERIANS.
priesthood is an indispensable condition of salva
tion. One of these theologians iterates, and reiterates,
his candid conviction, that all in communion with
the episcopal church are in covenant with God ;
and that all others are aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, and
have no hope but in the wrecovenanted mercy of God.
He, then proceeds to charge the presbyterians with
entertaining a similar opinion, with excluding from
the Christian covenant all, save presbyterians ; and
pronouncing all, who do not embrace the rigid pecu
liarities of Calvinism, to be in an unregenerate state,
and left to uncovenanted mercy.
I believe, it would not be easy to find any Calvin
istic presbyterian so very ignorant of the Bible, as
ever to speak about uncovenanted mercy, so entire
ly unacquainted with the Gospel plan of redemption,
as to dream of any mercy, other than what is promis
ed by the covenant of grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The truth is, Calvinistic presbyterians pro
fess to believe that, by the covenant of grace, sal
vation is promised to aU who really repent of sin,
and sincerely believe in Christ, as the great propi
tiation for sin, to whatever church they may belong;
nay, although they bear no relation to any visible
church. Not that they consider church fellowship as unim
portant; for they strongly enforce its duty, and loud
ly proclaim its benefits; but they do not confound
the external means of religion with its intrinsic es
sence. They hold the Scriptural, catholic, Chris
tian doctrine, that all who really believe in, and
love the Lord Jesus Christ, and evidence their faith
and love by a holy life ; whatever mistakes they may
commit, with respect to external church order and
government, nay, if they be so situated, as to be
unconnected with any ecclesiastical body ; are in co
venant with God, and possess that title to eternal life,
which God has promised to every sincere believer.

MR. WESLEY. 435
We may die — says John Wesley, who was an
evangelical Arminian, and consequently, a charita
ble Christian — without the knowledge of many truths,
and yet be carried into Abraham's bosom ; but if we
die without love, what will knowledge avail ? Just
as much as it avails the devil and his angels. I will
not quarrel with you about any opinion ; only see
that your heart be right towards God; that you
know and love the Lord Jesus Christ ; that you love
your neighbour, and walk as your master walked ;
and 1 desire no more. I am sick of opinions ; I am
weary to hear them ; my soul loathes this frothy
food. Give me solid and substantial religion ; give
me an humble, gentle lover of God and man ; a man
full of mercy and good faith ; without partiality, and
without hypocrisy ; a map laying himself out in the
work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of
love. Let my soul be with these Christians, where
soever they are, and whatsoever opinion they are
of. Whosoever thus doth the will of my Father,
which is in heaven, the same is my mother, and sis
ter, and brother.
This benignant disposition led him to judge kind
ly of all Christian denominations ; and he believed,
that heathens, who did their duty according to their
knowledge, were capable of eternal life ; nay, even
that a communion with the spiritual world had, some
times, been vouchsafed to them; for example, to So
crates, and Marcus Antoninus; which last heathen,
by the by, was a horrible persecutor of the Chris
tians, from whom he, however, condescended to bor
row his moral sentiments and sentences. Such men^
Mr. Wesley supposed, together with other pagans,
belonged to those many, who shall come from the
east and the west, and sit down with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, while the children of the king
dom, nominal Christians, formalists, are shut out.
The ttncovenanting divines very generally pro
claim themselves to be stanch Arminians; whereas,
in fact, they have no more acquaintance with Jamess

436

CALVIN  VAN ARMIN.

Van Armin, than with John Calvin. Their chief
claim to the title of Arminian, being an incessant
abuse of Calvinism ; which they revile with about
the same rancour, that the Socinian assails the doc
trine of the atonement, and the deist attacks Reve
lation. But Calvin and Arminius differ only as to the five
debatable points; a belief in which no reasonable
Calvinist considers as essential to salvation ; no more
than any sane, sensible churchman, any one not
belonging to ihe furiosi of archbishop Wake, deems
belief in episcopacy to be an indispensable condi
tion of salvation. Both Arminius and Calvin agree
in believing the evangelical doctrines of original
sin, and human depravity ; of spiritual, not baptismal,
regeneration; and of justification by faith.
Now, exclusive formalists, whatever they may
profess in general terms, do not really hold any one
of these evangelical tenets. For, in their opinion,
the taint of original sin is so very slight, that it can
be washed clean off by a little water sprinkled on
the face of an infant, provided the sprinkling be per
formed by a bishop, priest* or deacon; seeing that,
according to their great exemplar, bishop Mant, " no
other conversion than baptismal regeneration is pos
sible in this world."
Thus, are two of the fundamental doctrines of
Christianity diluted into nothing; and, in the same
hands, justification by faith shares a similar fate.
For, with the aid of their " terms and conditions of
salvation," they, altogether, explode free redemp
tion by grace, or sovereign favour ; and, actually,
represent a guilty, condemned sinner, as entering
into independent, mutual, running covenants, with
an offended God, who is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity, and transgression, and sin, in whose sight
the angels are charged with folly, and the heavens
are pronounced to be unclean. These men under
take to perform their part of the special contract, if
Jehovah will fulfil his part of the assumpsit.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 437
This is, to say the least, very vicious pleading ;
and certainly, Arminius steers as clear of all such
folly and blasphemy, as does Calvin himself. To
wards the close of the first, and in the beginning of
the second volumes of " The Washington Theolo
gical Repertory," a work of excellent augury to the
best interests of the American-Anglo-Church, seeing
that it is devoted to the dissemination of Scriptural
truth and evangelical doctrine, the all-important
subject of justification is discussed. In the twelfth
number, the following summary, deduced from the
preceding facts and reasoning, is presented to the
consideration of the Christian reader.
" Such are the views of the doctrine of justifica
tion, (by faith) as entertained by the reformers and
luminaries of our church ; such, also, is the view en
tertained by Arminius himself, who, in Thesis 48, de
justificatione, says — justificatio est actio Dei judicis,
justa et gratiosa, qua de throno gratiae, et misericor
dia?, hominem peccatorem, sed fidelem, propter
Christum, Christique obedientiam, et justitiam, a
peccatis absolvit, et justum censet, ad justificati sa-
lutem, et justitise, gratiaeque setemae gloriam. Such
is the doctrine of our articles, our liturgy, and ho
milies; and, above all, such is the unequivocal doc
trine of holy Scripture. By grace are we saved,
through faith, not of works, lest any man should
boast. " The doctrine of justification by faith is termed
by Luther, the distinguishing characteristic of a rising
or falling church. It forms one of the most important
points of distinction between the Roman and the re
formed churches ; the doctrine of justification by
works, is the doctrine of the Romish church ; and it
will always be the popular doctrine, says Buchanan,
among Christians who have little true religion, by
whatever denomination they may be1 called. For" it
is the doctrine of the world; it is found where
the name of Christ is not known ; and it is the spirit
of every false religion and superstition upon earth."

438 FORMAL THEOLOGY*
The writer of this instructive article in the Reper
tory, has proved, by abundant citations from their
writings, that the scriptural doctrine of justification
by faith, was' held by Cranmer, and Latimer* and
other of our venerable reformers, who sealed with
their own blood, their testimony to the truth of God.
And large extracts are also made from Hooker,
showing his unshaken belief in the same doctrine.
That very Hooker, to whose " Ecclesiastical Polity"
the formalists perpetually refer for proof of the apos
tolic origin of episcopacy; but respecting whose
truly evangelical sermons, they all observe a sepul
chral silence ; probably because they do not lie with
in the range of their theological studies.
Such is the substance of formal theology; if, in
deed, formalists can be said to preach any doctrine ;
for, in general,. these divines take a text, no matter
what, and flourish away about fifteen or twenty mi
nutes, on the importance of some overt act of duty,
and the necessity of abstaining from the external
commission of some of the grosser sins, without ever
once themselves dreaming, much less directing
others, how, and by what aid, a sinner, whose carnal
heart is enmity against God, is to do the will of Je
hovah. For any purpose of Christian instruction,
such ministers might as well select a sentence from
the Enchiridion of Epictetus, or the Morals of Se
neca, or Tully's Offices, on which to dole forth their
diluted, thin sabbatical ethics.
In good truth, these men have no system of theo
logy whatever; and so far as relates to evangelical
doctrine, the Bible is, to them, as much a volume
closed, and a fountain sealed, as the Koran, or the
Talmud, or the Shastrus. They set themselves with
most particular stoutness against all conversions of
individuals, and all revivals of religion, which they,
invariably, stigmatize as mere madness.
This compendious method of reasoning, is in very
general requisition, among formal men and women,
whenever superior zeal, and mightier energy disturb

GENERAL WOLFE  CHURCHMANSHIP. 439
the stagnant drowsiness of the surrounding commu
nity. When George the second had determined to
send Wolfe to Quebec, his courtiers suggested that
there were many older generals, who ought to take
precedence of Wolfe in this military expedition.
The king, answered, " Wolfe shall go." The court
iers then intimated, that Wolfe was not so regularly
bred as some other of his majesty's generals. The
monarch still insisted that Wolfe should take the
command. A noble lord then declared, it would
never do to send Wolfe, for he was mad. " Mad ! is
he ?" Cried the royal veteran, — " then I wish he
would bite my other generals." #;
Quite recently, a worthy Connecticut episcopal,
exclusive church parson, was delivered of a small,
stillborn pamphlet against conversions and revivals,
which he reprobated under the veritable New-Eng
land appellation of " Stirs."
Those divines, who make discipline, instead of doc
trine, the essence of a church, not only unchurch all
denominations, except their owp, but break down
every bulwark of sound doctrine in their own per
suasion. For example, episcopacy is the essence of
a church, and the only criterion of a true church;
and therefore, the Greek is a true church, although
she is heterodox, as to the procession of the Holy
Spirit. And the Roman is a true church, notwith
standing her numerous .schisms, her persecutions,
her idolatry, and her blasphemies.
According to this scheme of exclusive churchman
ship, also, if the Anglican, and American-Anglo-
Churches were to lapse into Socinianism, they would
still be true churches ; and communion with a So
cinian bishop would be communion with Christ, and
separation from a Socinian bishop would be sepa
ration from Christ, although that same Socinian bi
shop denies the djvinity and the atonement of Christ;
denies all that is essential to, and characteristic of,
the stupendous plan of Christian redemption.

440 CHURCH VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE-
Such was not the teaching of the Reformers, and
greatest luminaries of the English church. They
always deemed doctrine, not discipline, to be the es
sence of a church. For instance, bishop Hall says :
" Blessed be God, there is no difference in any es
sential matter betwixt the church of England and
her sisters of the Reformation. The only difference
is in the form of outward administration ; wherein,
also, we are so far agreed, as that we all profess this
form not to be essential to the being of a church,
though much importing the well or better being of
it, according to our several apprehensions thereof;
and that we do all retain a reverent and loving opi
nion of each other, in oar own several ways, not see
ing any reason, why so poor a diversity should work
any alienation of affection in us, one towards an
other." And bishop Andrews says : " though episcopal
government be of divine institution, yet it is not so
absolutely necessary as that there can be no church,
nor sacraments, nor salvation without it. He is blind,
that sees not many churches flourishing without it ;
and he must have a heart as hard as iron, that will
deny them salvation."
Cranmer, Hooker, Jewel, Whitgift, and other great
"fathers of the Anglican Church, . always consider
pure, evangelical doctrine to be the essential charac
teristic of a true church, the members of which in
clude " the blessed company of all faithful people :"
a phraseology not confined by them to mere episco
palians, but comprehending all " that congregation
of faithful and holy men who shall be saved."
This opinion of the English reformers implies the
distinction between the visible and invisible church,
a doctrine denied by exclusive formalists, who as
sert, that nothing but a visible church exists upon
earth, and that no church is visible, save their own.
The great lights of the English church, however,
do not leave such an important distinction to impli-

I THE TRUE CHURCH. 441
cation ; for it is strongly expressed by Cranmer,
Jewel, Hooker, Whitgift* Pearson, and other eminent
divines. The best theologians of the Anglican Church
have always held, that any part of the visible church
would cease to belong to the church of Christ, as
soon as it had thoroughly corrupted the purity of the
word of God, and the doctrine of the sacraments,
notwithstanding the episcopal form of discipline or
government, might remain. The homily for Whit
sunday says : " the true church is an universal con
gregation, or fellowship of God's faithful and elect
people, built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being a head cor
ner stone. And it hath always three notes or marks,
whereby it is known ; pure and sound doctrine, the
sacraments ministered according to Christ's holy in
stitution, and the right use of ecclesiastical disci
pline." But how does this definition of a true church,
given by the reformers themselves, accord with the
following formal exposition ? " The characteristic
mark, which distinguishes any society, is its appro
priate government. The appropriate government of
the visible church is that episcopal form originally
' established by the apostles. Where that form of
government is to be found, there the church of Christ,
as a visible society, exists."
One of our highest church divines emphatically
warns his clerical brethren not to mistake the pre
sent age of religious indifference for what it has been,
popularly, but erroneously, called, the age of libe
rality. The present, then, is an age of religious indifference.
The greatest divines in Christendom, men of the
deepest piety, the most exalted talents, the most
comprehensive learning, the most unwearied and
most effectual activity in the service of their Re
deemer, have all hailed the present age, as peculiar
ly blessed by an outpouring of the spirit from on
56

443 RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE. y
high, inciting all ranks, and orders, and conditions of
men, to increased, and continually increasing efforts,
in the cause of our most holy religion.
Was it religious indifference that lighted up the
labours of Claudius Buchanan ; that dictated his
" Star in the East,"— his " Light of the World,"—
and his " Eras of Light ?" Is it religious indiffer
ence that has already spread two thousand Bible so
cieties over the face of a benighted world ; and
stirred up in the hearts of an innumerable multitude
of Christian men, an unquenchable desire to diffuse
the word of God, not only throughout all the bor
ders of their own home, but also over the remotest
regions of the habitable globe ? Has religious in
difference planted the five hundred missionary sta
tions, by which the Moravians, the methodists, the
baptists, the presbyterians, the congregationalists,
the Anglican, (I wish I could add the American-An
glo) church, have carried the glad tidings of salva
tion to unnumbered millions of souls, in the four
quarters of the globe, that were perishing in their
blood, without God, and without Christ, and without
hope : and have been permitted to be fellow-workers
with God, in hastening the approach of that glorious
day, when the earth shall be filled with the know
ledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea ; in
accelerating the fulfilment of that gracious promise
to his beloved Son, to give him the heathen for an
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for
his dominion; in hurrying onward the arrival of
that blessed hour, when Jew and Gentile shall bow
down together, at the foot of the cross, in faith, and
fear, and love, and gratitude, and adoration, of one
common Lord, even the Lord Jesus Christ, God
their righteousness, and God their strength ; when
every partition wall shall be broken down, every
sectarian prejudice laid low, and all the sons and
daughters of men, from the north and fromthe south,
and from the east, and from the west, shall come and
worship their Redeemer, together with God the Fa*

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 443,
ther, and God the Holy Ghost, as their covenant
Jehovah, their Creator, Preserver, Saviour, and
Sanctifier ?
Towards the close of the publication last alluded
to, occurs the following paragraph: — " The great
principle, into which aU the other principles of the
churchman may be resolved, that we are saved from
the guilt and damnation of sin, by the merits and
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, received in the exr
ercise of penitence and faith, in union with his church,
by the participation of its sacraments and ordinances
from the hands of her authorized ministry, distin
guished the church in her first and purest state. It
is the universal reception of this principle, which,
alone, (in 1820,) can restore purity and unity to that
Christian family, which is now deformed and distract
ed by heresies and schisms."
If a simple layman might presume to offer counsel
in these high matters, I would suggest the propriety
of making one single experiment, to wit : endea
vouring to build up the American-Anglo-Church, by
outpreaching, outpraying, and outliving the clergy
of all other denominations ; instead of consigning to
uncovenanted perdition, all who have not been so for
tunate as to receive the sacrament of baptism from
an authorized bishop, priest, or deacon. The
scheme of exclusive churchmanship has been tried
now, for at least thirty years, and the American-An
glo-Church still halts fearfully in the rear of other
religious sects ; for example, the presbyterians, the
cqngregationalists, the baptists, and the methodists.
/Seeing, then, that this intolerant, uncharitable sys
tem of theology has not rendered the church equal
to other communions, why not endeavour to bring
up her lee way, by avoiding all disputes about unes-
sentials, and directing all their strength to obey the
emphatic command of the Redeemer — " preach the
Gospel?" . . * * .
It is high time for all denominations of professing
Christians to know, that practical Christianity is some*

444 CHRISTIANITY  CLERGV.
thing more than either mere morality, or the mere
government order, rites, and ceremonies of any par
ticular church; or than both these combined. It im
plies a right state of the heart, thoughts being ac
tions in the eye of God, corresponding to, and im
pelling the external acts of piety and devotion ; in
which state of the heart, alien to man by nature, and
created by spiritual, not baptismal, regeneration,
the real, the spiritual essence of religion consists.
It is likewise to be remembered, that in Christian
communities, the clergy are the general channels of
good, or evil, to the surrounding people. An evan
gelical clergy is continually gathering converts to
God out of the world, and building up the church
of Christ in purity and strength ; whereas, a formal
priesthood, however authorized, merely collects an
assembly of worldlings, whom it encourages to rely
for salvation on some supposed external privileges ;
and, eventually, both priest and people go to their
own place.
Now, allowing that the balance of the argument
drawn from the New Testament, together with the
whole current of historical evidence, is in favour of
the position, that espiscopacy was the primitive and
apostolic order of the government and discipline of
the visible church, there is no reason that we should
therefore nourish a spirit of sectarian and exclusive
bigotry, and presume that eternal salvation is con
fined to that particular religious persuasion ; seeing,
that many of the wisest and best men that ever liv
ed, have argued ably, and acted conscientiously,
upon other and far different views.
Can we be so iron hearted, as archbishop Wake
and bishop Andrews call it, as to deny real religion,
aud eternal life, through the sacrifice, the righteous
ness, and the intercession of the Son of God, to
such men as Luther, and Calvin, and Claude, and
Owen, and Baxter, and Watts, and Doddridge, and
Edwards, and Davies, and innumerable multitudes
of burning and shining lights, who, in their allotted

COVENANT OF GRACE. 445
hour, were made the blessed instruments of awaken
ing their fellow-sinners to a sense of their own guilt
by nature ; and thence leading them to the foot of the
cross for forgiveness, and reconciliation with God ?
Are such men, of whom the world was not worthy,
to be excluded from Christian fellowship ; to be shut
out from the communion of the saints; to be con
signed over to the uncovenanted mercy of God ? Is
not the covenant of grace, made with all true be
lievers ? with all those who, feeling themselves to be
sinners, fly unto God for mercy, through Christ; and
to whom God gives the Holy Spirit, which first rege
nerates, and then progressively sanctifies them both
in heart and in life ? with all those who find peace
from the Son of God, and from the Spirit of God ;
from the Lord Jesus Christ, forgiveness; from the
Holy Ghost, sanctification ? with all those, who,
under the sanctifying influences of the Spirit, are
assured, that although sin still remains lurking in the
deeper folds, and buried in the inmost recesses of
the heart, it shall not regain dominion, nor shall they
come into condemnation ; but being accepted in the
beloved, shall give evidence of what manner of spirit
is in them, by wishing what the Father wishes, and
hating what the Father hates? with all those who
study the Holy Scriptures, with prayer for forgive
ness* through the Lord Christ, for assurance of par
don through the Holy Spirit, and for grace to obey
the commandments of God ; seeing, that the gift of
the Holy Ghost is promised to all those, who, despair
ing of themselves, rest for righteousness on the Son
of God?
Is not salvation altogether individual? can one
man be saved by another's faith, or damned by
another's works ? The declaration of Jehovah him
self is, "he that believeth, shall be saved; he that
believeth not, shall be damned." Erasmus, when he
became acquainted with the persecuted puritans, in
England, exclaimed, " may I live their life, and die
their death !"

446

HENRY MARTYN.

That saint, Henry Martyn, who was, himself, one
of the firmest and brightest pillars of the Anglican
Church, as well as one of the most intrepid, zealous,
faithful, and illustrious of all Christian warriors, says :
"the ritual of the Christian churches, their good
forms, and every thing they have, is a mere shadow,
without the power of truth; but it is impossible to
convince the people of the world, (the pharisees and
formalists,) that what they call religion, is merely a
thing of their own, having no connexion with God
and his kingdom. How senseless is the zeal of
churchmen against dissenters, and of dissenters
against the church ! The kingdom of God is neither
meat, nor drink, nor any thing perishable; but
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost. It is an afflicted and poor people that shall
call upon the name of the Lord ; not those, who, pro
fessing themselves to be wise, have become fools."
And Mr. Martyn's admirable biographer observes,
that " a love for particular popular preachers, a fiery
zeal in religion, a vehement excitation of the animal
feelings, as well as rigid austerities, are false cri-
terions of genuine piety; and are in full perfection
among the real followers of the crescent, as well as
among the pretended disciples of the cross."
The controversy is worse than idle, as to which is
the exclusive church that holds the monopoly of sal
vation. The argumentum ad modestiam, as to num
bers, ought to deter very many religious sects from
arrogating to themselves such a presumptuous claim.
There are about two hundred millions of nominal
Christians in the world ; of which ten millions re
pose in the bosom of the Anglican and American-
Anglo-Churches. Are the other one hundred and
ninety millions, to say nothing of the eight hundred
millions of Mahometans and pagans, swarming upon
the surface of the earth, all consigned to remediless
perdition ?
There are not ten millions of any other single
protestant denomination, whether of presbyterians,

CHURCH OF CHRIST. 447
of congregationalists, or of methodists ; and are all
other Christian persuasions utterly lost, excepting
the little handful of methodistical, or congregational,
or presbyterian candidates for heaven ? Are the
exclusive churchmen aware how much their theory
is in accordance with the claims of that elderly lady,
who is dressed in scarlet, and drunk with the blood
of the saints ?
The fatal mistake of every religious body has been,
to assume to itself, to its own little peculiar sect, the
exclusive title of "the church of Christ." Papal
Rome very charitably devotes all denominations
out of her own pale, to eternal death ; and, very
wisely urges this truly catholic spirit, as, in itself , a
proof of her being the only true church. The high
formalists of the Anglican and American-Anglo-
Churches, with great complacency, consign all non-
episcopalians to uncovenanted perdition. So, the
bigots and pharisees of all persuasions, baptists,
methodists, presbyterians, independents, covenan
ters, and so forth, hedge the Christian church within
their own minute respective circles.
The church of Christ consists of all faithful be
lievers in him, by whatever outward name or sym
bol known, wheresoever located, or scattered, and
howsoever worshipping, and adoring him ; provided
they are regenerated and quickened by the Holy
Spirit, and give external evidence of their faith by
a life of holiness, dedicated to the service and glory
of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost. One of the propositions of the pious Ques-
nel, condemned in 1713, by the formalism of the Ro
man church, in the bull unigenitus, " as false, cap
tious, shocking, offensive to pious ears, scandalous,
pernicious, rash, injurious to the church — that is, the
popish sect, — and her practice ; contumelious, not
only against the church, but likewise* against the secu
lar powers; seditious, impious, blasphemous, here
tical, and manifestly reviving several heresies," runs
in these words : " what is the church, but the con-

448 ALL SECTS, EXCLUSIVE.
gregation of the children of God, adopted in Christ,
redeemed by his blood, living by his spirit, acting
by his grace, and expecting the grace of the world
to come ?"
But, notwithstanding this Scriptural, and truly
evangelical doctrine, the many various religious sects,
which divide and agitate Christendom, still persist
in urging their respective claims to exclusive church
manship. The papists profess to find in the Scrip
tures their own Saint Peter and his omnipotent
keys ; their mass and transubstantiation ; their au
ricular confession and purgatory; their infallibility ;
their right to stifle all opposition to the papal will in
the tears and blood of their mangled, mutilated
victims. The exclusive Anglican and American-Anglo
churchmen demonstrate from the Bible the three or
ders of bishops, priests, and deacons, in lineal de
scent from the apostles, and unchurch, uncovenant,
and unchristianize all other denominations, who deny
or doubt this demonstration. In the same revealed
word of God, the presbyterians discover a parity of
ministers, and their own peculiar form of ecclesias
tical government; the independents discern, that
every separate congregation is, in itself, a separate,
and distinct church, amenable to no other or higher
clerical tribunal ; the methodists find, beyond all
possibility of a peradventure, that the protomartyr,
Stephen, was the first local preacher in their com
munion ; and the sine nomine secta perceives a very
clear revelation from heaven, that the New Testa
ment proscribes all clergy, of every order, sort, and
kind ; and permits none but laymen, who have some
secular occupation during the weekdays, as tinkers,
weavers, cobblers, et id genus omne, to be teachers and
preachers, and expounders of the law and Gospel,
on the Sabbath.
Dean Paley, in his sermon on the distinction of
orders in the church, states his opinion, that the
Scriptures mark out no particular form of church

NO EXCLUSIVE CHURCH. 449
government; and that the New Testament pre
scribes no particular gradations of priesthood to be
observed throughout Christendom; but that each
age, and country, and community, is left at liberty to
model its own church, both internally and external
ly, according to its own notions of propriety and ex
pediency. However this may be, one thing is certain ; that
there is no exclusive church ; to the professing mem
bers of which eternal salvation is exclusively con
fined. For it is manifest, that divine Providence
blesses every sect and denomination of Christians
among whom the doctrines of the cross are faithful
ly preached ; whether they be episcopalian, or pres
byterian, or congregational. All these religious bo
dies have been blessed, as instruments in the hand
of God, and under the quickening, sanctifying influ
ences of the spirit, to the conversion of sinners, the
purifying of the life and conduct, and the salvation
of souls; as is evident, by a cloud of witnesses, in
different ages', and in every clime.
Now, if any one church, whether Greek, or Latin,
or protestant, either as a whole, or in any of its va
rious parts, subdivisions, or sects, were an exclusive
church ; the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Head of
the church, would not bless the ministers of any
other denominations with his presence, nor aid
them with the illuminations of his spirit. It behooves
us, therefore, to extend a catholic spirit of love, es
teem, and reverence, towards all, of whatsoever de
nomination or persuasion, who preach Jesus Christ,
and him crucified, in purity of doctrine, in singleness
of heart, in simplicity and in truth.
A good old divine says : " I have seen a field here,
and another there, stand thick with corn. An hedge
or two has parted them. At the proper season the
reapers entered. Soon the earth was disburthened,
and the grain was conveyed to its destined place;
where, blended together in the barn, or in the stack, it
57

450 NAME OF CHRIST.
could not be known that a hedge once separated this
corn from that. Thus it is with the church. Here
it grows, as it were, in different fields, severed, it
may be, by various hedges. By and by, when the
harvest is come, all God's wheat shall be gathered
into the garner, without one single mark to dis
tinguish that once they differed in the outward cir
cumstantials of modes and forms."
If there were an exclusive church, membership in
which is essential to salvation, and all out of its
pale were consigned to perdition, or left to an un
covenanted contingency, it is fair to infer, that the
Holy Spirit would have revealed it in the word qf
God, as plainly as he has revealed any other truth,
belief in which is necessary to salvation ; as for ex
ample : " thou shall love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength ;" or, " he that believeth (in Christ Jesus,)
shall be saved; he that believeth not, shall be
damned." But, as this is not done, does it become
Christians, who profess to serve one and the same
Master, to love one common Lord, to condemn those
who differ from them in opinion about church order,
and church government, about external ceremonies,
rites, and discipline?
It would be well, if formalists of all denominations
would remember, that when our Lord and Master
declared, that whenever two or three should be ga
thered together in his name, he would be in the midst
of them ; he did not say, two or three episcopalians,
or two or three presbyterians, or two or three con-
gregationalists ; but simply, when two or three are
gathered together in my name. The main stress is
laid upon the all-important point of being gathered
together in His name, and not in the name of any
particular religious persuasion or sect.
In some periods of the English history, the contro
versies, as to the modes, and forms, and orders of
ecclesiastical polity, prevailed so much, and raged

CHURCH CONTROVERSY. 451
so fiercely, as almost entirely to extinguish the light
of Christian charity among those, who nevertheless.
professed to believe in the same Lord and Master.
This was particularly the case in the reigns of Eliza
beth, and the four first Stuarts. Indeed, during the
time of the two Charleses, so much was written and
said, on either side, concerning the form of church
government, that it became of more importance in
the eyes of the unreflecting multitude, than the doc
trines of that Gospel of peace, which both churches
professed to embrace.
The more violent of the prelatists and presby
terians were as illiberal and intolerant as the papists
themselves, and permitted no salvation beyond the
narrow circle of their own respective sects. It was
altogether in vain to inform these zealots, that if the
Lord Jesus Christ, the author and founder of our holy
religion, had considered any peculiar form of church
order and government, as indispensably necessary to
salvation, he would have revealed it in the New-Tes
tament, with the same perspicuity and precision as
he revealed that of the Jewish polity, under his elder
and more imperfect dispensation, in the Old Testa
ment. Both parties were as violent and fierce, as if they
could plead a distinct revelation from heaven, at
once to command and justify their own intolerance.
The execrable Laud, in the day of his dominion
over his infatuated master and a subservient cler
gy, fired the train, not only by his cold-blooded
cruelties inflicted upon the English, but also by im
posing upon the Scottish, church ceremonies, and
forms, and orders, foreign to their habits, and alien
from their opinions. This ecclesiastical tyranny was
successfully resisted, and the presbyterian model
finally established in Scotland ; from whose national
church episcopalians, seceders, and other religious
sects, dissent.
In our own days, in these United States, contro
versy has been rife respecting ecclesiastical polity.

452 DR. HOW  MILLENNIUM.
The chief champions of episcopacy are the late Dr.
Bowden, bishop Hobart, and Dr. How. The pres
byterian form of church government was defended
by Dr. Mason, and Dr. Miller. Dr. How labours to
prove, that controversy is the life and soul of religion ;
and that to it, principally, is the episcopal church in
debted for its growth in the United States ; and that
by its aid episcopacy will cover the whole earth,
about the time when the Millennium first sets in.
But it may be doubted, if continual controversy do
not call up feelings, and tempers, and disposi
tions, far other than those which characterize the
servant and disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
to be feared, that controversy, in general, does not
answer to the apostle's description of charity ; and
it is a consummation devoutly to be wished, that the
only controversy among Christians were, who should,
most faithfully, zealously, and constantly, in season
and out of season, preach Jesus Christ and him cru
cified, as the only foundation of present peace, and
future hope, and eternal safety, to individuals ; as
the only source of domestic, social, and national con
cord, joy, prosperity, strength and honour.
There are some fine and forcible observations in
Dr. Mason's " Plea for catholic communion upon
catholic principles," upon the evil of rending the
unity of the Christian church by contests about mi
nute and unimportant points of difference among
those who agree in all the essential doctrines of Re
velation. He shows, with great ability, and much
learning, that the love of unity, and the horror of
schism, prevailed in the hearts of all the best and
brightest Christians of the primitive ages ; and shone
out with renewed lustre in the saints and heroes of
the Reformation, and their followers of succeeding
generations ; that the Luthers and Calvins, the Me-
lancthons, and Bucers, and Martyns, the Dutch,
French, and Swiss churches, and the evangelical
interest, generally, were desirous of basing the com
munion of the church upon the broad foundation of

CATHOLIC COMMUNION. 453
the common faith, without regard to minor differences,
and that it will never be well with Christendom until
an union be endeavoured and effected between all
those who are orthodox in doctrine, though differing
among themselves in some circumstances about
church government.
And surely, a Christian spirit and temper are in
finitely preferable to all controversies respecting
matters not essential to salvation. Far better would
it be for all real Christians, whether Calvinistic or
Arminian, whether episcopalian, or presbyterian, or
congregational, to cease their disputations upon ex
treme points of doubtful construction and unintelli
gible abstruseness, about discipline, and habits, and
ceremonies, and external rites and observances ; and
to unite all their forces in harmonious combination,
against the real enemies of their common faith, whe
ther open or secret; against atheists and deists,
against Arians and Antinomians, against Socinians
and formalists; to uphold the doctrines of the
cross ; to strip off the mask of self righteousness
from the formal pharisee; and to expose the impiety
and blasphemy of the avowed opponents of Reve
lation. Memorable, says the preface to the " Jus divi-
num," is the story of bishop Ridley and bishop
Hooper, two famous martyrs, who, when they were
out of prison, disagreed about certain ceremonial
garments, but when they were put into prison, they
quickly and easily agreed together. Adversity unit
ed them, whom prosperity divided."
We, certainly, do prefer the union of all Christian
denominations, in their efforts to evangelize the
world, to all assertions of the exclusive claims of
episcopacy to covenant mercy, and the consequent
condemnation of all nonepiscopal communions, to a
state and condition, no better, if not worse, than that
of the heathens, who never heard the sound of the
glorious Gospel. It must, in very deed, be an iron
heart, to say nothing of the head piece, which would

454 FORMAL MONOPOLIES.
degrade, unchurch, unchristen, all other protestant
persuasions, the papists being cordially embraced as
brother episcopalians, and proscribe them as having
no sacraments, no covenant right to salvation, for
want of a ministry derived by an uninterrupted
succession of episcopal ordination from the apostles.
All formalists, of every religious persuasion, are
prone to set up a monopoly of salvation for themselves;
from which they rigorously exclude every one, who
cannot, or will not, pronounce their shibboleth.. In
Christendom, the papists are supposed to be most
strenuous in asserting their exclusive church privi
leges on earth, and for heaven. The Hindu brab^-
mun, perhaps, is equally charitable, when he denies
the possibility of future happiness to any Christian
faith and holiness, unless the candidate for immorta
lity occasionally refreshes himself with a naked seat
on tenpenny nails.
But the Jews themselves were signal examples of
this exclusive, formal disposition. At the advent of
the Messiah, these people maintained the exterior of
piety, although the power of godliness was lost.
Their chief priests, and popular leaders, Josephus
describes as profligate wretches, who had purchased
their places by bribes, or other iniquitous acts ; and
maintained their authority by the most flagitious
crimes. Their religious creed was split up into va
rious sects, which were, all of them, more intent on
the gratification of private enmity, than the advance
ment of piety, or the promotion of the public wel
fare. The subordinate members followed the cor
ruption of their head ; the priests, and Levites, and
all the inferior clergy, were most abandoned and dis
solute; while the laity, profiting by their clerical
example, plunged into every species of depravity,
and drew down the vengeance of God upon ther de
voted land.
Yet were these Jews the very stanchest formal
ists; attached to the Mosaic ritual; and the tradi
tions of their elders, with a maniac fanaticism and

JEWISH FORMALISTS. 455
zeal. These hypocrites assumed the most sancti
monious appearances before the world ; uttering
their set forms of long and loud. prayers at the cor
ners of crowded streets ; publicly parading their re
ligion and their almsgiving, yet, in private, exercis
ing the most, horrible cruelty and oppression ; de
vouring widows' houses, robbing the orphan, perpe
tually bawling out, the temple of the Lord, the tem
ple of the Lord ! paying tithe of mint, anise, and
cummin, to support the splendour of the priesthood;
and, in practical life, violating the first duties of mo
rality, justice, faithfulness, and mercy.
Their great men were incredibly depraved ; many
of them Sadducees in principle, and in practice;
profligate sensualists ; more abandoned than the
corrupted ages of the heathen world ; vieing, which
should surpass each other in impiety against God,
and injustice towards man. They compassed sea
and land to proselyte the pagans ; and when they
had gained a convert, they soon rendered him a two
fold child of hell ; making him, by their own scan
dalous example, more profligate than before his
conversion. The circumstance of their nation having been
blessed with a direct revelation from God, instead of
expanding, narrowed their minds into all the bitter
ness of theological hatred. They regarded the un-
circumcised heathens with sovereign scorn; and
branded them as enemies of Jehovah, because they
were, by birth, aliens from the commonwealth of Is
rael, and lived strangers to their covenant of pro
mise. They would not eat with, nor do the least
act of kindness for, nor hold any social intercourse
with them.
Hence, they could not endure the calling of the
Gentiles to participate in the Christian salvation ;
wherefore, the apostles, particularly Paul, laboured
to confirm this point by reference to numerous pro
phecies in the Old Testament. In the true spirit of
exclusive churchmanship, also, they professed to be-

456 ROMAN AND. ANGLICAN CHURCHES.
lieve, that all Jews would infallibly be saved ; and
that Abraham sits near the gates of hell, and does
not permit any Israelite, however wicked, to descend
thither. The Rev. Samuel Wix, likewise, is too stout an
exclusive churchman, to desire to conciliate, or unite
with any protestant dissenters. He prefers coales
cing with the pope, to uniting with any nonepiscopa-
lian, however sound in Scriptural doctrine ; how
ever fervent in evangelical faith ; however pure and
holy in a life regulated by the precepts of his bless
ed Redeemer. " No," says he, " the union is not de
sired between members of the (English) church and
schismatics ; but between the church of Rome and
the church of England, if, indeed, they may be de
signated, as churches under different names. Union
is not, indeed, nor ought to be desired between the
true apostolical church, and those who renounce
apostolical discipline ; but union between the church
of England and the church of Rome, on proper Chris
tian grounds."
Mr. Wix professes to be struck with " horror" at
the schismatic spirit of the day, and says, that "no
sound catholic, whether of the church of England,
or of the church of Rome, can unite with protestants
while they refuse to be under the discipline of the
church, (Roman or Anglican ?) or to bow to its faith."
And Mr. Wix discovers, by a round of reasoning,
doubtless quite satisfactory to himself, and perad
venture, also, to the papists, that " the impiety of
protestant nonepiscopalians are far more injurious
to Gospel truth, than the errors attaching to the Ro
man catholic faith."
Protestant impieties, and popish errors ? but eheu
jam satis est.
Upon these asseverations, somewhat marvellous
in the mouth of a beneficed clergyman of the English
church, who is probably on his way to the episco
pate, the Christian Observer thus mildly animad
verts : now, without going into the inquiry, if the

LUTHERANS-r-REFORMERS. 457
episcopal form of church government be so abso
lutely essential, that none can be within the pale of
Christ's visible church, who have not adopted it;
without discussing the question, whether the Socie
ty for- promoting Christian Knowledge has irrepara
bly injured the faith by employing Lutheran mis
sionaries in the East Indies ; and whether all classes
of dissenters, even those who hold the doctrines of
the church of England, are schismatics, who ac
knowledge not Christ and despise his sacraments ;
although our own opinion is at utter variance with
that of Mr. Wix, we would ask, why not attempt to
bring over to the establishment, those who maintain
substantially the same creed but have not adopted
the same discipline. If you will try conciliation, why
not begin with protestants ?
Why not, indeed ? or does Mr. Wix think it safer,
wiser, and more consonant to Scripture, to seek a
family alliance with the murderess of the saints of
God, rather than with Christian communities ? The
Christian Observer expresses his surprise at the
marked difference of tone manifested by Mr. Wix
towards many classes of protestants, from that used
by him towards papists ; a tone, as to protestants,
not very consistent with charity ; and as to papists,
not in accordance with that of our most venerated
reformers and martyrs; in the company of whom,
Mr. Wix, doubtless, as well as many other stanch
formalists, both Anglican and American, would have
found their sensibilities grievously outraged, when
those great fathers of the English church spoke out
the truth plainly, and without disguise, as they were
warranted by the word of God, against the impiety,
the blasphemy, the idolatry, the intolerance, the cru^
elty, the blood guiltiness of papal Rome.
Very many of our modern exclusive churchmen,
besides Mr. Wix, hold in entire abhorrence the pro-r
testant declarations against the popish scheme, of
such men as Coverdale, Philpot, Taylor, Rogers,
Hooper, Bale. Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, and others.
r 58

458 BISHOP RIDLEY.
whose sentiments the Christian Observer cites as
being altogether opposite to those of the Vicar of
St. Bartholomew the Less.
Mr. Wix's notable device of destroying the British
and Foreign Bible Society, by the proposed coali
tion of the Anglican and Roman churches, will re
ceive due consideration, when we examine the real
grounds of the present deadly hostility, both popish
and protestant, European and American, to the cir
culation of the pure, unsophisticated word of God,
without note, and without comment; unincumbered
with the help of any mere human composition, in
whatever shnpe, orf'orm, or substance.
A most refreshing contrast to the modern scheme
of exclusive churchmanship, may be found in the
answer of bishop Ridley, during his last examination
before the popish commissioners, a little before
they burned him for being a Christian. " I acknow
ledge," says this blessed reformer and martyr, " an
unspotted church of Christ, in the which no man can
err, without the which no man can be saved, which
is spread throughout all the world, that is, the con
gregation of the faithful; and where Christ's sacra
ments are duly ministered, his Gospel truly preach
ed and followed, there doth Christ's church shine as
a city upon a hill. I am fully persuaded, that Christ's
church is every ivhere founded, in every place where
his Gospel is truly received, and effectually fol
lowed.'' It is utterly vain to hope, that by railing at other
denominations, and claiming a monopoly of salva
tion for episcopalians, the American-Anglo-Church
can ever flourish in a country, where all religious
sects are placed on equal political ground ; where
the social institutions, supporting liberty, both civil
and clerical, encowrage inquiry, and where those
people, who are in the habit of reading the Scrip
tures for themselves, are able to judge what minis
ters preach the Gospel, and what ministers neglect,
or pervert that sacred duty; and, who,.if they exa-

CHRISTIAN RIVALRY. 459
mine the common prayer book, may easily discover
when a bishop, priest, or deacon, contradicts, or
neutralizes the evangelical liturgy of the Anglican
Church; contradicts, by preaching unscriptural doc
trine ; neutralizes, by keeping back the doctrines of
grace. In consequence, when these inquirers find such
aclesgyman, and search the Scriptures, where they
cannot discover the dogma of exclusive churchman
ship ; and duly appreciate the value of their own
immortal souls, they are apt to transfer themselves
to some church, where the Gospel is preached ; and
thus the evangelical sects increase, while the formal
communions diminish.
It is portentous of evil, if the spiritual rulers of the
Anglican and American-Anglo-Churches cannot so
discern the signs of the times, as to discover, that
neither of these religious bodies can possibly flourish,
by merely calumniating other Christian persuasions,
and crying out continually, " the church, the
church !" — " the temple of the Lord, the temple of
the Lord !" which clamour is almost as efficacious
as that of " great is Diana of the Ephesians!" Nor
is any good to be expected from incessantly railing
against all evangelical piety, " as fanaticism, enthu
siasm, weakness, irregularity, Calvinism, low church
manship, methodism, &c. &c.
The existing circumstances of the world preclude
the possibility of any church making permanent head
way, unless by outpreaching, outpraying, and out
living other denqminalions ; which, in fact, is the
only allowable rivalry in the Christian church. Cer
tainly, if the pulpits, in England and in these United
States, be taught to resound with the evangelical
doctrines of the articles, homilies, and liturgy, no
one need fear the fate, either of the Anglican, or of
the American-Anglo-Church.
Formalists of every kind consign all out of their
own pale to the uncovenanted mercies of God ; that
is in other words, to utter damnation. But God's

460 SALVATION INDIVIDUAL.
covenant of grace is with individuals, qf all ages and
countries, who live by faith in Christ, as God their
righteousness ; not with whole churches. For even
the* papists themselves do not presume to save,
eternally, all within their own pale, though all out
of it are irretrievably damned. And they send a
goodly number of their devouter brethren into pur
gatory, as a preparation for heavgn, which is obtain
able only after enduring a quantum meruit of burning
and torment.
As if punishment and suffering, in themselves, had
any tendency to produce purity of life, when unac
companied with the effectual operations of the Holy
Spirit! As if an unregenerate, though baptized sin
ner would be the better fitted to enjoy the beatific
sanctity of heaven, by being cast into hell fire, for a
season ! As if an unrenewed heart could possibly
enjoy the holy delights of angels, and of archangels,
and of the spirits of just men made perfect, and of
all the company of heaven !
Salvation is individual, not congregational, not
clerical, not national. Jewish individuals, not the
Jewish church, were saved by faith in a Messiah to
come, under the Old Testament dispensation. As
individuals, not any particular visible church, under
the Christian scheme, are saved by faith in a Mes
siah, already come. External orders, and ordinances,
and government, and privileges, and discipline,
without a personal interest in the all-sufficient sacri
fice for sin, will avail us nothing, except to increase
our condemnation in that great and terrible day,
when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to judge the
quick and the dead, in the presence of an assembled
universe. All formalists, whether episcopal, or presbyterian,
or congregational, make their own church order the
sum and substance of religion, as the papists do the
traditions and infallibility of their corrupted and
< schismatic hierarchy ; whereas the mere frame and
outwork of the order and government of any eccle-

CHURCH ORDER. 461
siastical body can only be effectually defended and
protected by evangelical religion, keeping watch and
ward in the citadel of the heart. The Jews had a
theocratic order of church government, a reliance
upon which, however, did not prevent them, and
their church, and nation, from plunging headlong
into perdition.

CHAPTER V.

Baptismal Regeneration.

Another tenet of modern fashionable theology is
baptismal regeneration.
Into this very important question, which lies at the
foundation of all real religion at present, a minute
inquiry cannot be made ; it must suffice to notice
briefly the principal writers on the subject, and to
state some of the most obvious objections and con
sequences arising out of this popish tenet.
Mr. now bishop Mant, at first insisted, that bap
tism was always regeneration, if duly administered ;
that is, if the water was sprinkled, and the service
read by any episcopally ordained priest, whether
protestant, or papist, or pelagian, or formalist, or So
cinian, or deist, or atheist. But afterwards, when
grappled with in the controversy by his more evan
gelical, more able, and more learned brethren, he,
in effect, gave up the whole question, by saying, that
baptism was regeneration, if duly received; that is,
by adults, when receiving it by faith; a position de
nied by no Christian sect or individual ; but quite
another and distinct consideration from the baptismal
regeneration of infants!
Without wandering into any metaphysical subtle
ties, or losing ourselves amidst the mazes of Biblical
criticism, we may simply ask, if baptism, be always
regeneration, where is the only evidence we can have
of spiritual or real regeneration ? that is to say, a
holy life in all who have been episcopally baptized.

REAL REGENERATION. 463
Is baptismal regeneration proved by the frowardness,
the disobedience, the rebellion against all authority,
the unsanctified tempers and dispositions, the envy
ing strifes and bickerings of the great majority of
children who- have been episcopally christened?
by their youth of dissipation and profligacy; their
manhood of ambition and worldly, calculation; their
old age of avarice, and discontent, and querulqus-
ness ?
These are not the fruits of regeneration, as exhi
bited in the word of God. The glorious liberty of
the children of God is the being freed from the dark
ness of unbelief, and the bondage of moral corrup
tion, and translated into the light of faith, the fire
of love, and the law of righteousness. The strong
holds of sin on the one hand, and of self- righteous
ness on the other, are broken down. By the lost
condition of our nature, we are . insensible of our
sinful state, and ignorant of our extreme danger ;
impenitent, and unbelieving, and self-righteous,
though unholy. From this legal, formal state of in
sensibility, impenitence, unbelief, self-righteousness,
and slavery to sin, every child of God is delivered
by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost ; who,
pointing out the danger of original and actual sin,
directs them to Christ alone, as the way, the truth,
and tlie life. No longer habitually self-righteous,
they gratefully rest upon the righteousness of Christ,
as the sole procuring cause of their acceptance in the
Father's sight ; while they labour after inward con
formity to the divine image, and outward conformity
to the divine law; being well aware, that without
holiness no man can see the Lord ; and that faith
without works is dead. ,
An unrenewed person, whether episcopally bap
tized or not, has no spiritual sense; no hearing of
the promises; no perception of his own misery; no
adequate notion of God's holiness, nor of the per
fect purity of the divine law, nor of Christ* as an ab
solute. Saviour, nor of the Holy Spirit, as the re-

464 WOMAN IN TROUBLE.
vealer of Christ in the heart ; no experience of the
Father's everlasting love; no communion with him
through the ministrations of the Holy Ghost; no
feeling of grace, producing conviction, comfort, and
sanctification ; no hungering and thirsting after spiri
tual enjoyments and assurances ; no yearnings of the
soul after the blood, and righteousness and interces
sion of the Lord Jesus Christ. If these be expe
rienced, they are indications of spiritual life; if not,
mere water baptism, however administered, is no re
generation. Nevertheless, so little are our formalists aware of
these plain Scriptural truths, that recently, one of
our largest divines, when applied to by a woman in
his congregation, who was labouring under deep con
victions of sin, and desirous of receiving some spirit
ual advice from her pastor, gaveit as his decided'
opinion, " that she had no occasion for a change of
heart, because her heart was changed at baptism."
Upon receiving this gracious assurance, the wo
man retired, leaving our doctor delighted with the
depth of his own divinity. But, as her mind had
been actually illumined by the quickening influen
ces of the Holy Spirit, she soon discovered that the
doctor's answer was not exactly calculated to direct
her steps aright in the Christian course ; and some
time thereafter waited agdn upon her high priest,
and told him that she had now found peace in be
lieving, and joy in the Holy Ghost. To this he an
swered sharply and roughly, " that she was under a
gross delusion ; and if she continued such a weak
fanatic, she would soon become absolutely crazy ;
that when she was baptized, her heart received all
the change that was necessary ; that she was then
justified, and nothing remained for her to do, but to
be confirmed, go to church, occasionally communi
cate, read the common prayer book, and lead a sober,
moral life; and if at any time she fell from her bap
tismal state, she had only to be sorry and repent,
which would bring her back to that happy condi-

MATTHEW MEAD. 465
tion of regeneration and justification ; and she would
go to heaven, as a matter of course, upon her cove
nant claim of communion with the episcopal church."
The poor woman finding neither consolation, nor
instruction, from such popish, semi-pelagian doctrine,
went over to an evangelical presbyterian, under
whose faithful ministry she now sits. The worthy
doctor on being told that such conduct on his part
was calculated to drive all serious persons from the
episcopalian into other churches, exclaimed, " so
much the better, 1 would have all enthusiasts and
fanatics leave the church; they are only fit to be
presbyterians and methodists."
Undoubtedly, if this laudable scheme of quenching
all the operations of the Spirit of God be steadily
persevered in, and carried into full effect, the Ameri
can-Anglo-Church will not long be infected with any
taint of Christianity; but will soon exhibit one entire
hideous mass of self-righteous formalism; one huge,
misshapen carcass of popish, Pelagian putrefaction.
It is precisely such theologues, and such theology,
that impart all its point and sting to the following
anecdote. "An English nobleman said to Matthew
Mead, the nonconformist, ' I am sorry sir, that we
have not a person of your abilities with us in the
established church, where they would be extensively
useful.' ' You do not, my lord, require persons of
great abilities in the establishment; for when you
christen a child, you regenerate it by the Holy Ghost;
when you confirm a youth, you assure him of God's
favour and the forgiveness of his sins ; when you visit
the sick, you absolve them from all their iniquities ;
and when you bury the dead, you send them all to
heaven. Of what particular service, then, can great
abilities be in your communion ?' "
There are other divines than Mr. Mead, who cer
tainly act, whatever they may say, as if they thought
talents and learning were quite unnecessary incum
brances to " a regular and authorized ministry."
59

166 DEAD BAPTISM.
A thoroughgoing formalist, however, is not so de
cided an enemy to talents and learning, as to all
evangelical piety. A late bishop of St. David's dis
suaded a lady from hearing Mr. Whitfield preach,
lest it might hurt her nerves; concluding, doubtless,
that preaching the Gospel might alarm those who are
not used to it. Much more recently, a very great
dignitary in the Anglican Church, said to a lady of
quality, who troubled him with a quotation from the
apostle of the Gentiles; " do not tell me of St. Paul,
madam; it would have been happy for the church,
if St. Paul had never written a line of his epistles."
It is truly lachrymable to think how early super-:
stition and formalism began to encroach on the sim
plicity and spirituality of the Gospel ; and to lean
their whole weight upon the mere opus operatum of
external ordinances. The papists soon deemed it
convenient to represent baptism as inseparably con
nected with the absolute and plenary forgiveness of
sins; whence many stout believers in the infallibility
of the bishop of Rome, wisely postponed the being
baptized to the last moment of life, and thus made
sure of heaven. It sometimes happened, however,
that these persons, by delaying their baptism too
long, actually died unbaptized ; in which case, one
of his relations or friends was baptized in the dead
man's stead ; and the priest begged God to accept
this proxy baptism, in the same manner as if it had
been administered to the principal, when living ; and
thus an unbaptized dead body received the full be
nefit of baptismal regeneration.
The best divines, including the fathers and
founders of the Anglican Church, represent baptism
as typical of regeneration ; and as the initiatory ordi
nance, by which persons, whether infant or adult,
are incorporated into the visible church, and enrolled
among Christian professors. They believe, that the
administration of baptism is, sometimes, attended with
the real, renewing influences of the Holy Ghost:

BAPTISM  WHAT. 467
which influences being internal, spiritual, and un-
discernible by the baptizer, the service directs him
to state this charitable hope of the phtirch, in his ad
dress to the sponsors, and in his presumptive thanks
giving to God.
They do not, however, pretend to bind in an in
dissoluble cord the regenerating grace of the Spirit
to the bare administration of the external ordinance.
They leave all such theology to the church of Rome,
which consigns to especial perdition those who
doubt, that every sacrament, ipso facto, confers grace
ex opere operato, and that baptism, in particular, im
presses a certain, indelible, spiritual mark upon the
soul. Si quis dixerit, says the council of Trent, per
ipsa novae legis sacramenta, ex opere operato, /non
conferri gratiam, &c, anathema sit. Si quis dixerit,
in tribus sacramentis, baptismo, scilicet, confir-
matione, et ordine, non imprimi eharacterem, in
anima, hoc est signum aliquod spirituale etindeiibile,
&c, anathema sit."
But the Anglican Church, except as wMsrepresent-
ed by her formal doctors, holds no such tenet. She
defines a sacrament to be an outward and visible
sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Baptism,
therefore, is not, in itself, regeneration, but only its
sign or type. The twenty-seventh article coincides
with the church catechism in this respect, when it
says: "baptism is not only a sign of profession, and
mark of difference, whereby Christian men are dis
cerned from others that be not christened ; but it is
also a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby
as by an instrument, they that receive baptism right
ly, are grafted into the church." Whence it ap
pears, that baptism and internal regeneration are
two distinct things, which, although they may some
times go together, yet do not necessarily, nor con
stantly accompany each other.
Not very long since, one of our chief American-
Anglo-Church divines issued a publication, which
deserves notice on account of its theology, both bap-

468 MODERN THEOLOGY.
tismal and other. In stating the meritorious cause,
and the conditions of our acceptance with God, the
preacher erects a scheme of salvation directly op
posed to that set forth in the articles and homilies of
the Anglican Church; for he in reality ascribes the
whole efficiency to our own performances of repent
ance, faith and good works.
iNow the English reformers, in their private writ
ings as well as in the public formularies of their
church, expressly declare the perfect righteousness
of Christ to be the meritorious cause, the sole condi
tion of our acceptance with God. They represent
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the gift of God by
the Holy Spirit, as the only effectual mean of union
with the Redeemer ; and repentance from sin, and
a holy life, they uniformly describe as the necessary
effects of that union. The word of God promises
salvation to faith, because it unites the believer to
Christ in his justifying righteousness; and the Scrip
tures promise salvation to repentance and a holy life,
because they imply faith and are its fruits, and are a
proof of union with that Saviour, who is God our
righteousness, and God our strength.
The Scriptures require us to believe in the Son of
God ; to believe that God is so well pleased in his
beloved Son, as to require nothing from the sinner
but a belief of the truth; to receive the divine evi
dence that God is already satisfied in the sacrifice
of his Son. They uniformly asSert, that no profess
ing Christian can give satisfactory evidence of his
interest in the covenant of grace, unless he live by
faith in the Redeemer; enjoy, in some measure, the
consolations of the Gospel, and exhibit its fruits in a
holy life and conversation ; in love to God and love
to man.
In this same lucubration it is asserted, that predes
tination only means God's eternal purpose to make
certain persons episcopalians ; in the same manner
as the Roman church interprets the elect of God to
signify nothing more than papists. " It maintains,"

PREDESTINATION. 469
says the writer, "on a just construction, the only
election declared in Scripture, the election of Chris
tians, as a collective body to the privileges of the
Gospel. In like manner, all Christians are now the
chosen, the elect of God. They are all, by baptism,
taken out of the world, and placed in God's holy
church ; received into covenant with him."
That is to say, in other words, the elect of God
are all those, who are by baptism made churchmen ;
for the writer denies the validity of any other than
episcopal baptism ; and scouts the possibility of any
other church covenant with God. He invariably
calls the episcopal persuasion "the church;" and
denominates episcopalians " churchmen," par excel
lence. In another theological production, he says:
" adhere to the government of the church by bishops
priests, and deacons, by which government the visi
ble church of Christ is known. The benefits of
church communion are forfeited when we separate
from the priesthood, which was instituted by Christ,
as the essential characteristic of his church. The
uniform testimony of all the apostolic and primitive
writers establishes the general conclusion, that who
ever was in communion with the bishop was in com
munion with Christ; and whoever was not in com
munion with the bishop, was thereby cut off from com
munion with Christ ; and that sacraments, not ad
ministered by the bishop, or those commissioned by
him were not only ineffectual to the parties, but more
over, like the offerings of Korah, provocations against
the Lord. The only mode through which we can be
admitted into covenant with God, the only mode by
which we can obtain a title to those blessings and
privileges which Christ has purchased for his mys
tical body, the church, is the sacrament of baptism."
This tenet, which implies the damnation, not only
of all persons unbaptized, but also of all that are non-
episcopally baptized, is more horrible than the high
Calvinistic notion of infant perdition; because that
allows of some infants being elect, and consequently

470 FULGENTIUS.
saved. Nay, all Calvinists do not believe in the
damnation of infants ; for instance, Mr. Toplady,
who, on most points, was a very sturdy supralapsa-
rian, thinks that all infants are of the elect from all
eternity. This position, however, is at variance with
the doctrine of ultra Calvinism, as laid down by ho
nest Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspae, in Africa, who
was considered the Augustine of his age, at the
close of the fifth, and beginning of the sixth cen
turies. Firmissime tene, says the African prelate, et nul-
latenus dubites, parvulos, sive in uteris matrum vi-
vere incipiunt, et ibi moriuntur, sive cum de matri-
bus nati sine sacramento saneti baptismatis de hoc
sseculo transeunt, ignis aeterni sempiterno supplicio
puniendos. Nothing short of a passage in the sa
cred Scriptures in which this asseveration of Ful
gentius is directly, and in so many words revealed,
will ever induce me to believe that infants, dying in
their mother's womb, will be tormented, or rather
punished, " puniendos," in everlasting flames. And
I have not yet found such a passage in any edition of
the Bible, in any language that I have either read or
consulted. Observe the milder spirit of a modem Calvinist, in
relation to this strained inference against little chil
dren. The late venerable Thomas Scott, in his re
marks on the third chapter of bishop Tomline's
" Refutation of Calvinism," alike steers clear of the
supralapsarian tenet, that all, except the elect in
fants are damned, and the still more execrable no
tion, borrowed from the papists, by the modern
formalists, or baptismal regeneration men, that all
unbaptized, and nonepiscopally baptized infants are
doomed to everlasting damnation.
" There is no ground of doubt," says Mr. Scott,
"of infants, the children of believers, devoted to
God in baptism, dying before they commit actual
sin, being saved ; but whether all infants, who are
baptized, or none else, are questions of a, very com-

INFANT DAMNATION. 47'.
plicated nature ; on which the Scripture gives no
light. Our rubric assumes that the profession and
engagements made in the name of the baptized in
fant, and implied in the parents who offer the child
to baptism, are sincere; and therefore speaks of
the infants as the children of believers ; but is pro
perly silent as to others. Yet when we consider the
various circumstances which may prevent the bap
tism of infants, born of believing parents, and that
the children of believing Abraham, to whom circum
cision was given as the seal of the covenant, by
which the Lord engaged to be a God to him, and to
his seed, must not be performed before the eighth
day; and many would previously die ; we cannot be
authorized to confine the salvation of those who die
in infancy to such as are baptized.
" A few presumptuous, extravagant Calvinists have
spoken shocking things of the damnation of infants ;
but to consign the innumerable multitudes of those,
all over the world, and in every age, who die before
they commit actual sin, and die unbaptized, to eter
nal damnation, is far more shocking. Such Calvinists
may suppose some of the children to be elect, and
saved; but this sentiment excludes them all. On
both sides, however, it is a presumptuous intrusion
into things unseen and unrevealed ; and a practical
forgetfulness of the words of God by Moses; the
secret things belong unto the Lord our God ; but
those things which are revealed belong to us, and to
our children for ever, that we may do all the words
of this law."
It may be observed, that Fiilgentius has united in-
himself the doctrine of the sternest Calvinism, in
damning little children in their mother's womb, with
that of the papists and their faithful followers, the
modern formalists, in consigning to everlasting tor
ments all those children who are born, but die un
baptized ; sine sacramento saneti baptismatis. Be
tween these two precious tenets, Christianity must
have a very firm seat.

472 CHURCH DECLENSION.
To the prevalence of exclusive churchmanship,
and baptismal regeneration, and similar popish in
terpolations upon the doctrines of our protestant re
formers, a late able and intrepid champion and
clergyman of the Anglican Church attributes her
alarming decline and impotence. He expressly as
serts, that owing to the departure of the national
clergy from the principles of the Reformation, the
church of England has become the scorn of infidels;
that so large a portion of the English people are sunk
into a deplorable ignorance of divine things, unpa
ralleled in any other protestant country ; that so many
of their churches are empty, while dissenting* meet
ings are full to the overflowing.
The melancholy truth is, that in many parts of
England, churchmen go to the dissenters, in order
to hear the doctrines of their own church preached.
The ignorant, and openly profane, are indifferent
about attending public worship. To this same de
viation from the doctrines of their protestant prede
cessors, on the part of the established clergy, is
chiefly to be imputed the vast, and constantly in
creasing diffusion of infidelity in England. Christian
ity, shorn of its peculiar and distinguishing princi
ples, and reduced to a mere dry, uninteresting sys
tem of outward ethics, can take but little hold of
the human heart ; and is, in itself, no better than a
species of thinly disguised deism.
Avowed infidels, who reflect, that the Bible con
tains certain doctrinesy which are embodied in the
articles of the Anglican Church, and, at the same
time observe, how many of the English national cler
gy incessantly open their mouths, and wield their
pens against these very doctrines to which they have
solemnly subscribed their hands, professedly ex
animo, are led to conclude, " that the church is
merely a state engine, and the priesthood only a re
spectable trade."
Nay, the Christian Observer, at the close of the
year 1 820, sounds forth an ominous note of alarm,

WATERLAND — DODDRIDGE. 473
respecting the present condition and future prospects
of the English clerical establishment : " the state of
the church, in particular, calls for serious considera
tion ; and much is required to restore it to its due
popularity and efficiency. It demands an active,
humble, self-denying, and devotional clergy; men
who may gain the hearts and confidence of the peo
ple, and who will faithfully watch for souls, as they
that must give account; and it demands a very large
augmentation of their numbers. It demands, in its
ecclesiastical governors, no ordinary share of piety,
discretion, and vigilance. It asks, especially, for
kind and healing measures; measures, which may
counteract the popular ferment against the clergy and
the church; measures, the very reverse of those
which some zealous party men are desirous of carry
ing into effect. But we drop this subject for the pre
sent, as we shall shortly have occasion to allude to it
again, in examining the new articles of religion, im
posed on candidates for holy orders, by the bishop
of Peterborough, (Herbert Marsh,) which, as if we
had not controversies enough on our hands already,
promise to furnish a fruitful source of ecclesiastical
warfare, during the year that is before us."
Nearly a hundred years since, Dr. Waterland
wrote by far the ablest, the most learned, and most
ingenious work that has yet appeared, in support of
the popish doctrine of baptismal regeneration. In
the year 1741, appeared a complete refutation of
Waterland's book, on Scriptural grounds, by Dr.
Doddridge, in his ten sermons on regeneration ; I
say Scriptural, because Doddridge being ai dissent
er, was not called upon to clear the doctrines of the
church of England from so foul a charge. To speak
tenderly, whoever can seriously and without preju
dice, read these sermons <, of Doddridge, and still
persist inbaptismal regeneration, must either have a
heart harder than the nether millstone, or a head
more impenetrable than the hide of a rhinoceros,
or both. 60

474 TOMLINE  SCOTT.
In later days, Dr. Prettyman Tomline, now bishop
of Winchester, late of Lincoln, stood up as the
champion of this popish tenet, in the second chapter
of his book, which, by a singular misnomer, he calls
a " Refutation of Calvinism." If such a work be a
refutation of any thing, it is a refutation of Chris
tianity ; for it repudiates, as Calvinistic and damna
ble, all the essential and characteristic doctrines of
Revelation. This man, who has filled in succession
three of the most opulent and important bishoprics
in the Anglican Church, labours, with his whole
strength, to establish doctrines and principles in di
rect opposition to those exhibited in the public
formularies of that church.
He has recourse to every species of sophistry and
misrepresentation to compel the articles, homilies,
and liturgy of the church of England, and the writ
ings of their framers and founders, to speak a sense,
the very reverse of that which their language in all
fair and honest construction bears. Nay, he strives
to traduce the character, and blacken the reputation
of those illustrious divines, who have maintained the
real doctrines of the Anglican Church ; by repre
senting them as followers of Simon Magus; and by
classing them with the wildest heretics, and likening
them to the most abandoned and profligate wretches
that have, in different ages, perverted and disgraced
the Christian system.
The Rev. Thomas Scott, in his " Remarks" on
Dr. Tomline's book, has, with singular moderation
and forbearance, exposed the ignorance, the mis
statements, and the malignity of his diocesan; and
fully vindicated the Anglican Church from all the
vile and abominable imputations of popery, which
were attempted to be fastened upon her. Mr. Scott's
work contains an ample exhibition of the sentiments
of the evangelical portion of the English clergy, as
contradistinguished from those formal tenets of the
great majority of that clerical body, which have al
ready excited such a popular ferment against the es-

RICHARD MANT. 475
tablishment ; and which formal tenets, if not check
ed, will,* at no distant period, bury that venerable
church in the midst of its own ruins.
Still more recently, the Rev. Richard Mant has
followed, haud passibus acquis, Waterland and Tomline,
both of thern men of considerable talent and exten
sive erudition. Mant's tract upon regeneration, to
speak charitably of it, is one of the most flimsy,
childish, and unreasoning exhibitions of theology,
that the present age, fertile in such effusions, has
produced. Out of evil, however, has arisen good ;
for this least able, but most flagrantly popish effort
in favour of baptismal regeneration, called forth the
most triumphant refutation of this doctrine, both on
the ground of Scripture and of the public formula
ries of the Anglican Church, by the Rev. Messrs.
John Scott, Bugg, and Biddulph, three evangelical
clergymen in the English establishment. This doc
trine is also most conclusively shown to be at open
war with the Word of God, and with the articles,
homilies and liturgy of the church of England, in
the Christian Observer for the years 1816, and
1817. It is necessary to bear in mind the good faith of
Dr. Mant, in labouring to make protestant divines
speak with a popish tongue ; for example, in his
compiled commentary on the Bible, substituting the
word " reformation" for " regeneration ;" in order to
press the great authority of Lowth into the service
of baptismal regeneration ; and when detected in
the artifice, and exposed to the due contempt of all
honest men, restoring the word " regeneration" in
a subsequent edition.
How far this " distinguished divine," as our Ameri
can formalists delight to denominate Mant, is quali
fied to instruct the Christian church, let the follow
ing specimen of his theology prove : " our transla
tion of this passage, (Ephes. ii. 8.) for by grace
ye are saved through faith ; and that not df your
selves, it is the gift of God ; is a little ambiguous,

476 SIMON MAGUS.
and marty have unhappily concluded from it, that faith
is the gift of God ; a gift, I mean, in some peculiar
sense ; such a gift as is not vouchsafed to mankind
in general, like the gift of reason, or any other com
mon blessing."
It is surely matter of regret, that this distinguish
ed divine was not consulted by the inspired penmen,
who recorded the word of God ; for that word,
throughout all its pages of inspiration, leads direct
ly to the unhappy conclusion, that faith is the pecu
liar gift of God, and not quite like any other com
mon blessing ; for example, the air, or earth, or
fire. The fathers and founders of the English church
too, for want of the benefits of Mr. Mant's lucubra
tions, have filled the public formularies of that
church with the same Scriptural doctrine, that faith
is the gift of God ; for example, the articles, the
homilies, the catechism, and the liturgy, throughout.
And this is the family Bible, published under the
authority of the " Society for promoting Christian
Knowledge," in England, and recommended " as one
of the most useful and judicious productions of the
age," by five out of the nine bishops of the Ameri
can-Anglo-Church ; one of whom, the New-York
diocesan, acts as its editor, in these United States!
In his tract on regeneration, Dr. Mant asks, with
the most edifying simplicity, "where was Simon
Magus admonished of the necessity of undergoing
another new birth ?"
Verily, if honest Simon, the sorcerer, be a speci-.
men of a protestant bishop's regenerated saints, non
equidem invideo, miror magis. The Christian Ob
server supposes, that Dr. Mant was led into the theo
logical discovery of Simon Magus having undergone
the new birth by a misapprehension of the argu
ment of Augustine, as quoted by Wall, namely : " that
baptism received with a wicked heart and purpose
is yet valid ; and that such a man is to repent, but
not to be rebaptized." Whence, the doctor has drawn
too stout a conclusion for such slender premises to

MANT's TENDENCIES. 477
bear, to wit : " that there is no other than baptismal
regeneration possible in this world ; that from this
time forward, (i. e. from the moment of baptism,) a
new principle is implanted, the spirit of grace, which,
beside our soul and body, is a principle of action,
and that the inward grace always accompanies the
outward sign of baptism."
Thus Simon Magus appears to have experienced
the blessing of baptismal regeneration, with about
as much efficacy as do all those .unbaptized dead
bodies in the Roman church, which enjoy the benefit
of baptism by proxy.
/ The, most pernicious part of this popish doctrine
of baptismal regeneration is its tendency to divest re
ligion of all inward holiness, of all practical piety,
and to degrade it into a mere scheme of external
ordinances, rites, and ceremonies ; and therefore,
doubtless, is it so pertinaciously persisted in by so
many formalists, although shown to be entirely un
founded in Scripture, or in the evangelical doctrines
of the Anglican church ; not only by the able and
learned writers above mentioned, but also by others;
among whom the ReV. Messrs. Simeon, Faber and
Wilson are eminently distinguished. Some benefit,
however, has been produced by the discussion, in
rendering even formalists themselves ashamed to own
this " papistical and absurd" doctrine, as the dean of
Chichester calls it, in his Letter to Mr. Faber,
wherein he accuses that gentleman of "falsely" im
puting such a tenet to the majority of the English
clergy. The opponents of Dr. Mant, after proving that his
doctrine has no foundation in the Scriptures, proceed
to show, that it is not the doctrine of the Anglican
Church, nor of any of her better divines, from the Re
formation to the present -hour. Mr. Biddulph, in
particular, cites, as direct authorities against bap.-
tismal regeneration, the writings of Latimer, Ridley,
Hooper, Cranmer* Jewel, Andrews, Davenant, Hall,
Usher, Taylor, Reynolds, Leighton, Pearson, /Hop-

478 ANT1N0MIAN1SM — POPERY.
kins, Tillotson, Kidder,' Beveridge* Bull, Williams,
Burnet, Fleetwood, Bradford, Mann, Wilson, Sher
lock, Seeker, Greene, Law, and Horsley ; a goodly
array of bishops and archbishops; to which are
added, the illustrious names of Frith, Tindal,
Turner, Fulke, Hooker, Noel, Rogers, Mede, Bar
row, Scougal, Kettlewell, Wall, Woodward, Burkitt,
Nelson, South, Whitby, Ostervald, Stebbing, Rother-
ham, Stonehouse, and Paley.
Thus is left to Dr. Mant the enviable alternative
of being opposed by the soundest and most orthodox
divines of the church of England ; some few of whom
he has vainly manoeuvred to enlist on his own side,
by misquotation and misrepresentation ; or of being
confuted by numerous tracts of that very Bartlett-
buildings Society, which, with a pleasant inconsis
tency, has adopted this regeneration tract into its
lists. Have all these great divines misunderstood
themselves ? or has Dr. Richard Mant misappre
hended them.
That Dr. Mant is a very puny theologian, is, in itself,
a circumstance of no importance; but, as the Chris
tian Observer remarks, his doctrine of baptismal re
generation has a most dangerous tendency. Even the
able and subtle Waterland shrunk from encountering
the peril, to which Mant's doctrine exposes the An
glican Church, for in his " View of Justification," he
says : " if they mean, that justification, (to which
sense he confines the term regeneration,) is ordinarily
given to adults, without any preparative, or previous
conditions of faith and repentance, this is, indeed,
a very new doctrine, and dangerous, and Opens a
wide door to carnal security, and all ungodliness."
But " fools rush in, where angels fear to tread ;"
and Richard Mant has the courage to assure us, that
his worthy predecessor, Simon Magus, was not only
justified, but sanctified, also, by baptism.
The two main evils, resulting from Dr. Mant's po
sitions, as fully shown by Mr. Scott and Mr. Biddulph,
are antinomiamsm and popery ; seeing, that regene-

OPUS OPERATUM. 479
ration without effects, meets us continually, and under
all its most dangerous delusions, as filling the episco
pally baptized, indiscriminately, with all joy and
peace in believing; this distinguished divine connect
ing inseparably with episcopal baptism, a full and
free justification, and plenary remission of all sins,
origmal and actual, without fulfilment, either real or
supposed, of the previous conditions of faith and re
pentance. Now this complete and open avowal of the old ex
ploded, popish doctrine of the opus operatum, in the
nineteenth century, by a man who has subscribed
the articles of a protestant church, certainly exhibits
as much zeal and valour, as discretion and honesty.
Bishop Jewel, the great apologist of the church of
England, shows most abundantly, that one of the
principal grounds on which that church separated
herself from all intercourse with the see of Rome,
was the doctrine held by the papists, of a necessary
connexion between the opus operatum in the two
sacraments, and grace and salvation. The. English
reformers perceived the unscriptural and dangerous
tendency of this doctrine. Nor is the danger less
now, as appears from the irreligious temper and
conduct of the great majority of persons baptized in
the protestant episcopal church.
Bishop Burnet, the study of whose exposition of
the articles the General Convention of the American-
Anglo-Church has enjoined upon all candidates for
orders, says expressly, " we reject, not without great
zeal against the fatal effects of this error, all that is
said of the opus operatum, the very doing of the sa
crament ; we think it looks more like the incantations
of heathenism, than the purity and simplicity of the
Christian religion."
After reviewing the labours of Mr. Scott and Mr.
Biddulph, in support of the Scriptural and pro
testant doctrine of spiritual, against the popish and
pagan tenet of baptismal regeneration, the Christian
Observer concludes with some valuable remarks on

480 TRANSUBSTANTIATION.
Dr. Mant's performance and its tendencies. He
says the errors of these tracts on regeneration and
conversion, are so obvious, that except for a certain
imposing, plausible alacrity, and easy volubility of
style, it seems impossible for them not to strike the
most ordinary apprehension. It is no credit to the
boasted depth of reading and thinking in the pre
sent age, that these pitiable pamphlets have obtain
ed any currency.
They possess neither information nor reasoning,
nor the commonest consistency. Their utmost boast
is a sophistical appeal to some misconceived expres
sions in the liturgy, and a very few misunderstood
authorities. The old popish principle of literal in
terpretation, this is my body, which conducted so
many protestants to the flames of martyrdom, is re
vived in all its force ; for example — " baptism is re
generation; wherein I was made a member of Christ.
He saved us by the washing of regeneration. Words "
cannot be plainer: why should we resort to a forced,
an unnatural, and a presumptuous construction, to
supply usfrom a distance with the uncertain shadow
of a blessing, when the plainest and most easy inter
pretation of our Saviour's words places the substance
immediately in our hands?"
Is it baptismal regeneration, or its twin sister,
transubstantiation, which Dr. Mant thus labours to es
tablish ?
In developing his theological views, Dr. Mant has
not fairly attempted to meet one difficulty, or to ex
plain one opposing sentiment, either in the authori
ties to which he refers, or in the church formularies ;
for example, the apparently conditional interrogato
ries before baptism, with the unconditional grant
maintained by him, of the spiritual grace afterwards.
Nor has he explained in what sense the church seems
absolutely to promise eternal life, as well as regene
ration, to the baptized. Nor has he reconciled the
liturgical views with those of the Anglican Church,
which they seem to contradict, particularly in the

GALLOWS DOCTRINE. 481
twenty-fifth article. He has left , every difficulty to
shift for itself.
Indeed, these tracts betray a perfect ignorance of
the very nature and first rudiments of a sacrament.
They do not adhere to the same view of if for two
pages together. His predominant language, how
ever, is that the sign is the thing signified; baptism
is regeneration. At other times, baptism only con
veys regeneration. But the popish error, the pecu
liar conceit of this protestant churchman is, that the
sacrament to be valid, must always be attended with
the grace. Thus, according to him, every baptism
lawfully, that is* episcopally,' administered, is valid ;
but every valid baptism has the grace tacked to it;
therefore, every lawful, or episcopal baptism, is in
separably connected witn the saving grace, q. e. d.
This, it must be confessed, is a very Comfortable
and wholesome doctrine for all confirmed thieves
and midnight murderers; who have only to postpone
their baptism, until t";ey are convicted by the jury,
and sentenced to death by the judge; and then pre
vail upon the ordinary of Newgate to baptize them
episcopally and lawfully, the moment before their
friend Jack Ketch swings them off; and, if Dr.
Mant be correct in his theology, they will go to hea
ven from the gallows, quite as straight as from the
bench of bishops.
And this is the doctrine, which a protestant bishop
pomulgates, in order to promote private and public
morals, in the present feverish and perturbed state
of Christendom, when all old institutions are rock
ing to their deepest foundations ; and when'every
new establishment is exploding amidst the blaze of
revolutionary fires!
To say the least, this seems to be but a short
sighted scheme ; but perhaps, bishop Mant is satis
fied that the existing order of things will last out his
time ; and. posterity, like his own baptismal doctrine,
must be left to shift for itself; according to the
apothegm, of that sapient civic magistrate, who de-
61

482 MANT'S CONTRADICTIONS.
clared, that he did not see why he should care about
posterity, since posterity had done nothing for him.
Apres nous le deluge, was the watchword of Madame
Pompadour and the regent Orleans. And after
them the deluge did indeed come.
A very slight inspection of its merits will prove
Dr. Mant's system to be contradictory and suicidal.
At one time, his regeneration consists in privileges,
which may be forfeited by an improper conduct, or
state of mind ; at another, it consists in that good
state of mind and heart which best secures those
privileges. At one time, " a change of heart, as con
version, renovation, and the like, may take place be
fore baptism;" at another, on Hooker's authority
misunderstood, " baptism is a step, which to our
sanctification here, hath not any before it." Nay,
renovation, which he says, is the renewal of regene
rating grace, may happen before regeneration itself.
His whole tract is professedly written to prove un
qualified regeneration at baptism; and yet he talks of
" qualifications for regeneration."
Indeed, this distinguished divine appears, hastily
and unreflectingly, to have adopted the different
and contradictory notions of various and clashing
systems, without being able to give them even the
semblance of any connexion by his own ingenuity ;
whence his tracts teem with inconsistency and self-
contradiction ; in addition to being at variance with
all sound and orthodox antiquity, in separating the
ideas of renewal, faith, repentance, and a holy life,
from that of regeneration. It is but justice also to
State, that this potential polemic has contrived to
overthrow his own positions by all the very few au
thorities, of whatever age or kind, to which he has
ventured to appeal.
The most serious charge, however, against this
doctrine, is its pernicious tendency ; a tendency, to
be sure, bounded by its currency; which, in the pre
sent age of Scriptural inquiry, cannot be either ex
tensive or permanent. Its tendency is to^ blot out from

WATERLANfi— -MANT. 483
the Christian system the necessity of faith and of all
spiritual religion ; all that distinguishes a soul, born
of God, and united to the Saviour, and led by the
spirit, from a merely decent formalist. The neglect
of this distinction is the great practical heresy of
every age, and of none more than the present. So
that Dr. Mant's tenets tend directly to sap the foun
dation of all vital piety, of all personal holiness.
Dr. Waterland, with whose ingenious speculations
it is not intended to compare Mant's childish contra
dictions, asserts, that infants are justified, that is, re
generated, in baptism without either faith or works :
and in the true spirit of such a doctrine, asks : " what
occasion for disturbing Christians now, with the
question, whether good works go before justification,
or not ? Are we not, all of us, or nearly all, ten
thousand to one, baptized in infancy, and therefore
regenerated, and justified of course ?"
But Dr. Mant throws a cast even beyond this.
However unscriptural, unprotestant, unchurchman-
like, and dangerous it is to say, that infants are jus
tified without faith, when the very sacrament of bap
tism is a sacrament of faith, and the service itself
presupposes their faith; yet, extending the applica
tion to adults and to all episcopally baptized per
sons, has never been done so openly and unblush-
ingly by any protestant writer, as by Dr. Mant,
whose system is a most awful surrender of the great
evangelical doctrine of justification by faith, and the
substitution, in its room, of the formal tenet of justi
fication by baptism.
In his first studied definition of conversion, upon
which the whole system, in his second tract, is built,
he omits altogether any mention of faith. Sorrow
for sin, repentance, purposes of amendment, the use
of ordinances, a change of heart and life, with per
severance, are its only conditions ; and not one word
is said of reliance on the atonement, or reference by
faith to that blood of Christ which cleanseth from all

484 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.
sin ; any more than if the name of Christ had never
been heard of.
This is the essence of the scheme of baptismal
regeneration; the essence of formalism, denying the
very foundation of faith, and levelling the whofe
fabric of Christianity to the dust. Justification by
faith alone in the merits of Christ, is the doctrine of
the Bible, the doctrine of protestants, the doctrine
of the Anglican Church, the doctrine to which Chris
tians owe all their hopes, the doctrine, in defence of
which the English reformers and martyrs died, the
doctrine which the popish prelate, Gardner, labour
ed most stoutly to oppose by the favourite and pre
vailing arguments of the Roman see, the rack, the
dungeon, the gibbet, and the flame ; because he saw
that if it were once admitted into his church, the en
tire mass of papal superstition and idolatry, includ
ing transubstantiation, and baptismal regeneration,
must speedily perish.
The Christian Observer, out of pure charity, ac
quits Dr. Mant of any intention respecting these doc
trines, on the ground of his not being able to see
their real tendency ; but he does not acquit him of
intending to discountenance what his tracts are di
rectly calculated to discountenance, spiritual religion
and vital piety. For his system teaches, that spirit
ual religion is either every where, or no where ;
either that baptism gives it to all, or that it is neces
sary to none. Now it is absurd to talk of any spirit
ual change effected in all by episcopal baptism ;
seeing that it is a denial of all experience, and inca
pable of any rational evidence.
Regeneration, says Mant, is given to all at bap
tism; but, after baptism, all have not spiritual reli
gion; indeed, none have it, without the same in
struction, as if there had been no previous regenera
tion. Regeneration, therefore, is not spiritual reli
gion ; which, indeed, according to this neW scheme
of divinity, has no existence but in the disordered

BISHOP LAVINGTON.

imagination of brainsick fanatics, as methodists, Cal
vinists, and the like.
This system dilutes Christianity into the mere
principles of natural religion, and natural conscience;
making baptism secure to us a reception of our im
perfect works and frail principles of nature into fa
vour with God, through the merits of Christ. It
makes baptism a seal to the mitigated law of Christi
anity; and a pledge, that such as we are, if we do
our best, and use the aid afforded us, we shall con
tinue in our state of baptismal, justification.
Can any thing be more destructive of all true spi
rituality of heart, all genuine conversion, and de-
votedness of the whole nature to God ; every thing
that distinguishes the true Christian from a world
lying in wickedness ? It is, in fact, a desecration of
all that is most holy and undefiled in the religion of
Christ, even to its very words and denominations.
In his tract on conversion, Dr. Mant labours still
more directly to destroy all serious views, and just
feelings in religion ; to give the death blow to all spi
ritual, all personal religion. He rakes into bishop
Lavington's kennel, and thence extracts the mire of
misrepresentation and calumny, wherewith to stain
and darken every thing in the shape of evangelical
piety, in whatever Christian denomination it may be
found. Being a protestant bishop, Dr. Mant ought
to know, that the/quarrel of infidel and wicked men
has always been with the sincere and consistent pro
fession and practice of an humble, self-denying, self-
devoted reIigion._ Deists and atheists have no radical
objection to a churchman, provided he be a formalist,
and hates aM practical piety, with as perfect a
hatred as their own. Their virulence is directed
against the real believers in Christianity, of whatever
sect, because the holy life of such persons puts to
shame their own unrighteous deeds. But what is
there to offend an infidel, whether speculative or
practical, in bishop Mant's twin tracts on regene
ration and conversion ?

486 PAPISTS  DISSENTERS.
What wisdom was there in attempting to revive
questions and doctrines, and contentions, which
every sound divine, since the Reformation, has la
boured to compose in the spirit of Christian charity?
Dr. Mant has not proved, nor will he ever be able to
prove his positions on any Scriptural, or protestant,
or church of England grounds.
Most probably he will not attempt it ; seeing that
theology, and more especially controversy, is not his
forte. But whose hands has he strengthened by these
lucubrations? not those of the Anglican Church,
whose bread he eats, and whose dignities have been
heaped upon him; no; but he has strengthened the
hands of the papist, of the protestant dissenter, of
every one who desires the overthrow of the English
ecclesiastical establishment.
The papist might well rejoice, that the protestant
barrier, raised by the English reformers against the
papal doctrine of the sacraments, is now attempted
to be beaten down by a bishop of the Anglican
Church. The protestant dissenter might well justify
his separation from the establishment, if it hold such
a fundamental article of the popish creed. Nay, Dr.
Mant has actually referred to the authority of the
nonconformist ministers, who stated, as a ground of
their nonconformity, that the church of England
clearly teaches the doctrine of a real baptismal re
generation. An imputation, which the greatest and
best divines of the Anglican Church have always in
dignantly repelled.
If these baptismal regeneration doctors be correct
in their exposition of the public formularies of the
church of England, was the great earl of Chatham
wrong, when he thundered forth in the house of
lords, "we have a Calvinistic creed, an Arminian
clergy, and a popish liturgy ?"
TVon tali auxilio ; we do not need bishop Mant, or
any other bishop, priest, or deacon, now, in the
nineteenth century, to inform us, that the public
services of the Anglican church are not yet under-

FORMAL CHAMPION. 487
stood ; and that the illustrious divines, who compiled
the liturgy, and framed the articles, and composed
the homilies, and all their ablest, wisest, best suc
cessors, during a period of nearly three hundred
years, have been mistaken in their mode of expound
ing them.
Indeed, the great dragon of formalism, in our
American churches, has been heard to exclaim, that
the first reformers did not understand the articles of
the English Church, and in the homilies, through
mistake, gave them an erroneous interpretation.
That is to say, the first English reformers, some of
the best and brightest lights which ever burned in
Christendom, did not understand the articles framed
by themselves.
This, in fundamental verity, is the argumentum ad
modestiam. Thou child and champion of formal
ism ! suppose I were to say to you, " Sir, the self
same sermon, which you wrote, and preached twice,
in two different churches, on the last Sunday, about
the venial errors and slight imperfections of human
nature ; the sufficiency of human works, if perform
ed within the pale of your own church ; the neces
sity of avoiding all communion in matters purely re
ligious, with uncovenanted people, and the duty of
execrating all approach to the doctrines of grace;
neither you nor your parishioners understand ; but
some three hundred years hence, a set of men will
arise in the church, who will undertake to prove,
that you knew nothing at all about your own misera
ble discourse; that you, to be sure, intended it for a
dull, sober, Pelagian, pagan, formal, high church,
Sabbatical essay, without one single ray of Christian
truth in any part of it ; but in reality it was, mirabile
dictu, quite a Scriptural and evangelical address !"
" Quid rides ? mutato nomine de le
Fabula narratur."
That we might not err in our notions respecting
what portion of the church of England clergy really

488 ECLECTIC REvrew.
tend, by their labours, to support, or overthrow that
church ; whether the baptismal regeneration formal
ists, or the evangelical ministers in the establish
ment, the Eclectic Review for the year 1816, has
kindly provided. The reviewer, taking precisely
the position of Dr. Mant, says, that one of the rea
sons assigned by the ejected ministers at the restora
tion of Charles the second, for refusing to sign the
declaration, was, that the common prayer book
teaches the doctrine of real baptismal regeneration,
and certain salvation consequent thereon. And. as
suming that the nonconformists were correct in their
assertion, the reviewer pronounces bishop Tomline,
Dr. Mant, and all the baptismal regeneration cham
pions, to be the only consistent churchmen.
The Eclectic Review professedly supports evan
gelical religion and doctrine ; and on Scriptural
grounds condemns baptismal regeneration, as a pop
ish and antichristian tenet. But as some of the
chief writers in that journal are resolute enemies to all
alliance between the church and state, they eagerly
seize on Mant and Tomline, and their fellows, as
competent and credible witnesses to prove, that the
Anglican Church establishment is antiscriptural and
popish; and therefore must be removed, in order to
substitute Scriptural and protestant Christianity.
And doubtless, in the present state and condition of
the English people, if they can be induced to believe,
that the national church really maintains popish and
unscriptural doctrines respecting the sacraments,
they will speedily send that church, and all her cle
rical children, > to follow the fortunes of the second
James, and his male progeny.
To Dr. Mant belongs the unenviable distinction of
having revived the Romish doctrine of baptismal re
generation more opetdy, and more grossly, than any
other writer, by courtesy called protestant; nor
would it be easy for a popish priest himself to ex
press the tenets of his own church more explicitly
on this point ; in peculiar opposition to which the

FALLING CHURCH. 489
English reformers endured the agqny qf martyrdom,
For example, even in his latter academic sermons,
he informs us, that in baptism the Spirit " infuses
into us a principle of life; that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit ; such we become by our spiritual rer
generation, by our new birth in the sacrament of
baptism-". The Spirit " moveth upon the face of the
baptismal waters imparting to them a quickening
power." It is the duty of the minister " to wash the
sinner in the layer of regeneration, and to be the
instrument of admitting himinto filiation with God:"
" to baptism he (Ghrist) promises salvation." Christ
declares, that the bread and wine of the holy com
munion are his body and blood," and so forth.
When these, and sentiments such as these, are
openly promulgated by the church of England clergy,
of all orders and degrees ; and when those who la
bour to bring back the Scriptural doctrines of the
Reformation, as embodied in the liturgy, articles,
and homilies of that church, in opposition to these
horrible impieties, are branded as puritan gosnellers,
methodists, Calvinists, dissenters, seditionists,, and
the like; is it a ground of marvel, that the English
ecclesiastical establishment has a bad odour in the
nostrils of all honest men ? that every one who reads
and believes the word of God, shrinks with loathing
from such popish and pagan mockeries ?
Well may the dissenters lift up their voices, and
sharpen their spears against a heathen hierarchy.
And yet Dr. Mant, with ai truly infantile simplicity,
utters a feeble shriek of lamentation over, what he
calls, "a much injured, perhaps a falling church."
Now, is there a single individual, not even excepting
bishops Tomline and Marsh, in the preaenf age, who
has contributed so much, in proportion to his power,
to her actual injury and impending fall, as Richard
Mant himself? Has not he stricken his knife into
her vitals, and rendered her an object of scorn and-
derision to all her enemies?, 62

490 FORMAL CHURCH.
The British government, doubtless, in order to
show to the world the essential benefits of an inse
parable alliance between church and state, in pro
moting the best interests of pure and undefiled re
ligion, have actually made an Irish bishop of Mant ;
as a reward for having laboured incessantly and with
all his might, to fasten the stain of popery on a
church professedly protestant. The rulers of Britain
have only to persevere in promoting such clerical
champions ; and continue to their bishops the power
of suspending curates ad libitum, and of refusing to
countersign the testimonials of all presentees, who
may happen to preach the Gospel; and they will
soon have a national church, composed altogether
of formalists.
But then they will not long be troubled with their
politico clerical establishment; for the people of
England will never endure, staggering as they are
under so many other national burdens, to be laden
with an annual tax of fifty millions of dollars, to
support a church, whose clergy, in defiance of its
evangelical creed, labour so strenuously to render it
unscriptural and antiscriptural, unchristian and an
tichristian, by substituting merely external ordinan
ces, and rites, and ceremonies, for a living faith, and
a holy life.
If Mant and his peers be correct in their inter
pretation of the public formularies of the Anglican
Church, the sooner such a church is stubbed up.
root and branch, and burned in unquenchable fire,
the better. Nor need we be alarmed at the proba
ble number of martyrs among the state clergy, in the
event of the dissolution of a church reduced to the
deplorable condition of entire formalism.
In the hour of her extremity, it will be found, that
a formal hierarchy and a formal clergy, clustering in
all decent debility around the altars of the Anglican
Church, wil] not be able to prolong her existence.
If the British government deem the preservation of

RADICALS — EVANGELICALS. 491
the national church of any importance to the state,
it ought to know, that the only possible mode of pre
serving the establishment, is to fill its palaces and
parishes with an evangelical ministry. Then no ap
prehension need be entertained of the growth, either
of sectaries, or of radicals, which -at present strikes
so much terror into the ruling powers.
Let the sovereigns of Britain make the experi
ment of introducing evangelical clergymen into the
bishoprics and benefices of the national church ;
and they will soon be secure from all alarms of sedi
tion, privy conspiracy and rebellion ; of all false
doctrine, heresy and schism; of hardness of heart,
and contempt of God's word and commandment.
Whoever wishes to see the consequences of a
general diffusion of infidelity most forcibly and im
pressively exhibited, m-'V read " the Radical's Sa
turday night;" in the sixth volume of Blackwood's
Magazine, one of the ablest and most eloquent effu
sions in the English language.
In the mean time, it is a source of sincere congra
tulation, that the flame of protestant piety is not yet
entirely extinguished in the Anglican Church ; and
if the little remnant of evangelism, still existing in
that overgrown body of formality, will but faithfully
persevere in defending and enforcing the truly Scrip
tural doctrines of the liturgy, articles and homilies,
framed by the reformers, that church may yet, under
the blessing of divine Providence, still survive, and
triumph over all the open attacks of her avowed
enemies ; and over what is infinitely worse, and far
more dangerous, all the expositions and interpo
lations of her formal friends. Amen ! esto perpetual
euev etfi<rrtum\
In these United States, 4he printed efforts in favour
of baptismal regeneration, have been but few, and
faint, and feeble, and, far between. In the " Washing
ton Theological Repertory," for January and Fe
bruary, 1821, this subject is discussed. And the
writer fully and clearly proves that spiritual, not bap-

492 SUBSEQUENT CONVERSION.
tismal regeneration, is the doctrine, alike of the
Scriptures and of the public formularies of the pro
testant episcopal church.
A plain man might ask, how the baptismal rege
neration doctors, on their scheme, can account for
the subsequent conversion of baptized people; for
example, of such persons as Halyburton, Gardiner,
Newton, Vanderkemp, Henry Martyn, and an innu
merable multitude of others ? do the formalists dare
to assert, that many of the ablest arid wisest men that
have ever enlightened and adorned the world, were
weak enthusiasts and blind fanatics, in comparison
with their own snow broth apprehensions? And
how, Upon their mode of interpretation, do they ex
plain the fact, of the feelings, and language, and
conduct, of the converted, the spiritually regene
rated being substantially the same in all ages, and
in every clime ?
The universal experience of time and truth shows,
that, whenever any one becomes a real, a regene
rated Christian, the whole temper and character of
his mind are so changed as to become different from
those of the generality of mankind, and from what
itself Was, while yet unenlightened and unrenewed.
It is not merely a little circumstantial alteration; not
the assuming a new name ; nor the professing new
speculative opinions ; nor the practising new rites,
and forms, and Ceremonies, and ordinances ; but the
becoming a different creature, a new man, in that
Scriptural sense, wherein the characteristics of re
generation are opposed to circumcision and uncir
cumcision, and all the bare externals of religious
profession; and wherein the utter insufficiency of
the last, and the absolute necessity of the first, are
distinctly declared.
The truly regenerate have new apprehensions,
new affections, new resolutions, new labours, new
enjoyments, new hopes ; all of which prove them to
have become spiritual, and separate from the appre
hensions, affections, resolutions, labours, enjoyments,

SCOTT— -MILNER. 493
and hopes of the worldling and formalist, in conser
quence of the regenerating influences of the Holy
Spirit upon their hearts. Now will any formalist
stand up, and declare in the face of the day, that
such are the characteristics of aU the episcopally
baptized ?
How do the formalists, Uppn their theory, account
for the conversion of men, after they have taken
orders, and have ministered in the sanctuary; of
which both the Anglican and American-Anglo-
Churches can exhibit illustrious examples ? These
persons had all been regularly baptized ; and before
their regeneration or conversion had led as decent
moral lives, in all exterior circumstances, as did
ever any of those formalists, who have gone, or are
now hastening to their own place.
The venerable Thomas Scott, in his "Force of
Truth," has given to the world an awfully solemn
account of the steps, by which it pleased a gracious
Providence to lead him from the darkest depths of
clerical formalism, into the regions of evangelical
light and truth. In " the Washington Theological
Repertory," for May and June, 1820, Mr. Scott's
narrative is interestingly and instructively reviewed.
The conversion of the Rev. Joseph Milner, the
historian of the church of Christ, is stated, with
great force and effect, by dean* Isaac Milner, in his
life of his brother. The dean says, that in illustrating
the doctrines of regeneration, or new birth, and of
justification by faith, Mr. Milner exerted all his great
powers. Such preaching Was offensive to many, who
called it fanaticism, a word of convenient latitude to
express the hatred of formalists to all evangelical
truth. But the preacher's learning and knowledge of the
Scriptures, secured his authority; his vehement elo
quence commanded attention, and his manifest affec
tion for his people, and tender regard for their im
mortal interests, gradually elicited their esteem and
o-ratitude. A common . objection to the doctrines of

494 REAL REGENERATION.
grace is, that if mankind are so depraved by nature, ,
as to have no power to do good, they cannot be re
sponsible for their actions. But Mr. Milner never
meddled with the metaphysical subtleties that have
darkened this inquiry ; in the pulpit, he always con
fined himself to the Scripture account of the matter.
He constantly taught the necessity of the efficacious.
operation of the Holy Ghost, in restoring to the de
praved nature of fallen man the lost image of God ;
but, at the same time, inculcated the important duty of
employing proper means to obtain the proposed end.
He maintained, that the spirit of God did not ope
rate on the minds of men, as if they were inert mat
ter or mechanical engines ; but that the blessed ef
fects took place always in the use of our rational
faculties, and consistently with every notion of the
freedom of the human will, to which any clear and
satisfactory meaning can be assigned.
Regeneration, in its Scriptural sense, is a prevail
ing disposition of the soul to universal holiness, pro
duced and cherished by the influences of God's
spirit on the heart, operating in a manner suitable to
the constitution of man, as a rational and responsible
being. Now does baptismal regeneration always en
sure such a result? and, if it fail in one single in
stance, the inseparability, the necessary connexion
between baptism and regeneration is destroyed, and
the whole theory of Dr. Mant falls to the ground.
Those preachers who encourage men to hope for
salvation, because they have been regularly baptized
in infancy ; have duly attended on public worship ;
hold a stout, orthodox creed, and do no bodily harm
to their neighbours; are themselves travelling, and
are directing their followers, along a very broad,
but a very dangerous road. For real spiritual re
generation implies much more than this, namely :
that our hope and confidence are in Christ, not in
ourselves ; and that if we desire to be interested in
the righteousness which he has wrought out, and in
the blessings, which he has purchased by his sacred

Lord thurlow. 495
blood, we must be experimentaUy acquainted with the
work of God's renewing grace upon our souls, trans
forming us into the image of his holiness. Is this the
case with all episcopally baptized infants ?
Formalists accuse • evangelical ministers of en
couraging sin by their preaching, and yet of being
too strict in their prohibitions of innocent amuse
ments. But it is hard to reconcile these two accu
sations together* Truly, the legs of the lame are
not equal. Formalists, with their everlasting pre
lections about good works, and their dread of evan
gelical faith and sinfulness, admit any profane world
ling to the communion table, provided he exercise
as much prudence as the late lord chancellor Thur
low, of whom it is said, that there were only two
places in which he did not habitually and constant
ly curse and swear, to wit : the church and the
house of lords; but that he was always heard to
growl out his oaths in the church porch, and in the
lobby of the peers' chamber.
. A very eminent divine of the present day, who, in
his own person, has experienced the awful distance
between formalism and Christianity, having once
been an unconverted, though baptized philosopher,
but now a regenerated believer, has recently poured
the light of his head and heart upon this subject.
He has forcibly depicted the difference between
mere water baptism and spiritual regeneration ; be
tween a Christian and a formalist; and has also
shown the opposition, which pure and undefiled
religion must always meet from an unbelieving
world, whether baptized or not.
According to the teachings of this great master in
Israel, in every genuine disciple of Christ, we not
only see one, who, delivered from the burden of his
fears, rejoices in hope of a coming glory ; but one,
who, set free from the bondage of corruption, and
animated by a new love, and a new desire, is honest
in the purposes, strenuous in the efforts, abundant

496 WORLDLY MORALITY.
in the works of obedience. He feels the instiga*
tions of sin, and thus differs from an angel. But
he follows not those instigations, and thus differs
from a natural, or unconverted man. So that in him,
we view one struggling, with effect, against his earth-
born propensities, and yet hateful to Himself for their
existence ; holier and yet humbler than those around
him; realizing from time to time, a positive increase
in grace and excellence, and yet more tenderly con
scious of his remaining deformities ; • gradually ex
panding in attainment, as well as in desire, towards
the light and liberty of heaven, and yet groaning un
der a yoke, from which death alone can fully eman
cipate him.
There is a morality of this world directly oppos
ed to the humbling representations of the Gospel ;
which cannot comprehend what is meant by the ut
ter worthlessness and depravity of our nature ;
which repels with anger such a statement, in the full
consciousness of its own superiority to the sordid,
the profligate, and' the dishonourable ; which is for
tified in resisting the truth as it is in Jesus, by flat
tering testimonials to its own respectability and worth,
from the various quarters of human society. A just
sense of the extent of God's claim upon his own
creatures, would teach formalists, that to do some
things for their neighbours, is not doing all things for
their Maker ; that a natural principle of honesty to
man, is quite distinct from a principle of entire der
voted ness to God; that the tithe bestowed upon
others, is not an equivalent for a total dedication to
God of themselves, and of all that they have ; that
they may present those around them with many offer
ings of kindness, and not present their bodies a liv
ing sacrifice to God, which is their reasonable ser
vice ; that they may earn a cheap and easy credit for
virtues which will satisfy the world, and yet be en
tire strangers to the self-denial, the spirituality, the
mortification of every earthly desire, and .the affec-

FORMAL CALVINISTS AND ARMINIANS. 497
tiort for things above ; all of which graces enter, as
essential ingredients into the sanctification of the
Gospel. We mistake egregiously, if we suppose, that the
offence of the cross has ceased from our land. The
persecution of contempt, of ridicule, of misrepre
sentation, of calumny, on the part of the openly
profane and profligate infidel, (he more decorous
wordling, and the decent formalist, is still the ap
pointed trial of all who would live godly, and of all
who would zealously and honestly expound the doc
trines of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Christianity is, at this very hour, the same pecu
liar system which it was in the days of the apostles;
and as much signalizes and separates its followers
from a world lying in wickedness and unbelief. The
reproach cast upon Paul, that he was mad, because
he was an intrepid follower of Christ, is still prefer
red against every faithful teacher, and every consist
ent disciple of the Christian faith, and under the
significant watchwords of " methodism, and fanati
cism, and Calvinism," a hostile and an unbelieving
world is always ready to discharge from its innume
rable batteries, as abundant a shower of invective
and contumely now, as in the first ages of Christianity.
Indeed* all formalists, of whatever religious de
nomination, are alike especially full of perfect ha
tred to evangelical truth, doctrine, and practice.
For example, the formal Calvinist accuses his minis
ter of being a legalist, if he enforce the practical
duties of a holy life and conversation as enjoined in
the sacred Scriptures. And the formal Arminian
calls his clergyman a Calvinist, if he set forth the
doctrines of grace, to wit : original sin ; spiritual,
not baptismal regeneration, and justification by faith.
Both these contradictory charges arise from the
Same dislike of evangelical truth and doctrine; al
though appearing in different fonns. The formal
Calvinist wishes to rest on his doctrinal orthodoxy
alone, and not to be reminded of his neglect of the
63

498 MARKS OF FORMALISM.
practical duties of Christianity, and his habitual per
severance in forbidden and known sins. The formal
Arminian desires to claim some merit from his own
works of righteousness, and is offended with those
truly Scriptural tenets, which declare the humbling
lesson of man's utter inability to accomplish his own
salvation, which is wrought out entirely by the sacri
fice, the righteousness, and the intercession of the
Lord Christ; and which place good works in their
proper and subordinate station, as the evidence of a
living faith.
In truth, the distinguishing characteristics of full
formalism, are, the divesting religion of all its spi
rituality, and reducing it to a mere secular scheme
of external ordinances, rites, and ceremonies; the
being conformed to the world ; the paying constant
court to the rich and powerful, and not preaching the
Gospel to the poor.
How far such a system coincides with Christianity,
any one who reads the Bible may discover. But all
this, and much more than all this, necessarily re
sults from enforcing the popish doctrine of baptismal
regeneration ; which is the chief corner stone of the
unscriptural buiding of formalists. The children of
this world, however, are wiser in their generation
than the children of light; and the formalists studi
ously coinciding with, instead of opposing the natural
depravity of the human heart, and hardened by the
deceitfulness of their own sinful self righteousness, ;
are always gathering coadjutors and supporters out
of that world, which, according to the express de
claration of Holy Writ, lieth in wickedness, without
God, and without Christ, and without hope; as to
all spiritual things ; the things that belong unto our
everlasting peace.
Nor is this any new thing under the sun ; for all
secular, unregenerate priests, whether baptized or
not, in all ages, and in all countries of the world,
have pursued the same scheme of personal ambition,
and self-aggrandizement ; and have made the same

FORMAL PRIESTS. 499
incessant efforts to" stifle all religious feeling, and all
conscientious devotion in the surroundingcommunity.
For example, the pontiffs and soothsayers of pagan
Rome ; the priests of Baal, who corrupted the Is
raelites; the Brahmuns, who have entailed super
stition, and lust, and cruelty, upon the miserable
millions of Hindusthan ; the papal hierarchy, which
kept all Europe down in darkness, tears and blood,
through the long period of a thousand years ; and the
protestant formal clergy of England's established
church, who, during the reign of the Tudors, and the
Stuarts, visited all evangelism with fine, and impri
sonment, and pillory, and the scourge, and the gal
lows; and who, since the expulsion of the second
James, have persecuted all Gospel truth, and all
practical piety, to, at least, the full extent permitted
by the existing laws.
Hence, with the intervention of a single epithet,
Dryden's position is correct, for formal " priests of
all religions are alike."
In Mr. Fletcher's " Appeal," the reader may find
some very instructive and interesting facts and ob
servations on original sin, spiritual regeneration, and
the preposterous conceits of unconverted formalists,
as to their own goodness. In this original and elo
quent work, the truly evangelical writer proves his
positions, at large, from the Scriptures, in the words
of the prophets, the apostles, and the Lord Christ :
and from the express declarations of the liturgy,
articles, and homilies of the Anglican Church.
In addition to which, man is considered as an in
habitant of the natural, a citizen of the moral, a pil
grim in the Christian world. And the whole is
closed with important spiritual inferences, and earn
est exhortations to an harmonious union of a living
faith with a loving obedience to God's holy law;
steering alike clear of the equally ruinous, though
opposite errors of the immoral antinomian, and the
self-righteous formalist.

500 BISHOP KAY.
I had almost forgotten, to mention bishop Kay's
novel argument in support of baptismal regeneration.
In his primary charge, delivered in 1821, as diocesan
of Bristol, he says, that this doctrine would be ge
nerally believed in England, if it were not for the
custom of baptizing children in private houses, in
stead of churches. Does Dr. Kay think that the re
generating influences of the Holy Spirit so depend
upon time and place, as to operate in a building,
called a church, and to be ineffectual in a building
called a house ? This question, however, is need
less, because our baptismal regeneration men do not
allow any spiritual efficacy to baptism performed in
wnconsecrated meeting-houses, by nonepiscopalians
whose administration of every Christian ordinance is
pronounced to be unauthorized and invalid.

(HE END.