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rising class of dissenters, probably the Methodists, appears in p. 115, as ranged under "certain crafty leaders and mistaken zealots...... rendering religion not......our calm guide, &c.......but a turbulent disturber of individual comfort," &c.... Not that he supposes "every one a methodist or hypocrite who is a stranger to the vice and irreligion of the times......but at the same time, there are amongst us saints of a most mischievous description," &c. who turn out to be "dissenters of the worst description, publicly denying themselves to be dissenters at all......telling you (with too much appearance of truth) that it is you, the Church of England, which has dissented from yourself; that they mean to bring you back to your original purity......therefore are purchasing advowsons*, procuring cu racies, &c. for persons of their own tenets......Calvinistic, and as opposite to the real principles of our church, as almost any species of dis sent." pp. 115, 116.

By this description we are forcibly led (we beg pardon if wrongly) to understand that he means, or intends others to mean, what are mischievously denominated the evangelical clergy; — a term of distinction against which we shall never cease to protest, and which,to our certain knowledge, many persons disclaim, who are nevertheless pursued with the appellation. Now, having the honour of some little personal acquaintance with a few clergymen so stigmatized in their respective neighbourhoods, we are free to own that we were about to adduce them, as instances tending to disarm many of those bitter sarcasms against the church at large; -sarcasms of which we could wish those, who are so mightily alarmed at other dangers to which our venerable Establishment

* We wish we knew of so much zeal, in these our days, as would prompt men to expenses of this kind: but we confess on this head our author possesses some sources of information with which we are wholly unacquainted.

is exposed, would consider the fo effects, before they give them to t public. We were about to observe, that there were very few neighbor hoods, within our own knowledg in which unhappily the name o evangelical, but standing connecta also with some pious and exempl clergyman, the undoubted fris of his church and his country, not now sounded. On this foot, had intended to state our firm be that many hundred clergymen, sttered throughout most parts of the favoured land, were now living acting in a manner to confute, a even confound, the general accusa. tions cast upon the body at larg The number of such persons, also are inclined to hope, is much e the increase, amongst the younger » well as the more advanced part « the clergy; most of them unexcep tionable, even in point of discretio that last and difficult attainment a true zeal; holding, upon the tene) of Calvinism (that detestable schism of our Hookers, and Ushers, ani Leightons, and Beveridges), the most enlightened neutrality, on pure ly intellectual and theological pri ciples; serving much, by theires ample, to raise the tone of clerical duty, even amongst those of their neighbours who cannot go so far; having, at the same time, no differ ence with them, but increased activity and zeal in their common pr fession; and well versed, we should add also, in those principles of church government, which perhaps they may be the only men hereafterto urge with effect, or even with know. ledge of their subject, when they may be called to stand in the breach, and man the bulwarks of our church against the overwhelming assaults of religious dissent. We speak not this on light grounds; nor, at present with any other motive than that of rescuing our church from the actual load of obloquy and suspicion under which publications like the pre sent must necessarily throw it. And, in truth, we are not aware that our author himself, unguarded as he is

in every attack, would altogether reproach us for opposing even this shield to the force of his weapons. We do not accuse, or even suspect, him of any fool's project of "Hints to the Legislature upon Evangelical Religion." But we must say, on the other hand, if he only tempts us to look with suspicion upon men on whom he must know how invidiously the name of "saints," &c. is ready to be cast by the world ;-if, in fact, we are to exclude from the best defenders and the brightest ornaments of our church, men alike eminent for their zeal or their indolence, for their superior sanctity or their incorrigible levity;—if we are to rank amongst her true sons, or rather fathers, none but a certain indefinite middle character, who shall just hit the fancy of any fanciful projector; who shall, with a spirit of separation from the world, be just happy or unhappy enough to have that world "speak well of them;" who shall oppose without being opposed-we had almost said, shall be zealous without zeal, earnest without warmth, correct in doctrine without any doctrine at all, and examples in piety without strictness ;-why, then, truly our writer must look for these last, where he thinks they may be found, in Plato's Republic, in Utopia, or Oceana; and in the mean time, we will offer him our most sincere condolence upon the actual state, not only of our own much-abused church, but of every other Christian community in the known world.

In the mean time, however, we are not willing to leave our writer without our poor assistance, even on his view of the case; and therefore we revert to our original position, as to the far greater eligibility of the mode of "address," by way of reforming the ill manners of our corrupt clergy, than of proceeding "by bill," or proposing, through Mr. Perceval, parliamentary regulations. Indeed, we cannot understand how any bill can ascertain more clearly the powers which at present exist, or creCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 119.

ate others which shall be found on experience more effectual to add regularity to the administration of the holy sacrament, catechising children, visiting the sick; or, in general, to stimulate the clergy to greater decency and devotion in the various offices of their calling. Much less do we see the possibility of redressing by law, what doubtless is the root of all outward liturgical neglect, viz. for the most part, the dissipated habits of those guilty of such neglect; their want of inclination to all study, or, at least, those studies peculiar to their profession; and that very pernicious, we hesitate not to call it, ministerial delinquency, the preaching habitually other compositions than their own. This latter practice-however defended by the respectable names of Burnett or Addison, or by many others not less respectable, yet, as we believe it, fraught with every deadening principle, and whose only excuse is that which intimates a man to be no credit to his profession-is, we verily think, the only means by which the last degree of ignorance and insensibility can be made compatible with the sacred office. And it is to this therefore, and to those other enumerated delinquencies, whether in public or private pastoral duty, that we would, by a personal address, call the attention of all ranks and orders of the church-if possible, by a voice of thunder. We would warn them, from the highest to the lowest, that this is not a time for compromise, or for making easy concessions to certain exempt cases, which infallibly become a precedent for all cases of the most flagrant neglect or dissipation. We would, through the operation of their own good sense, or through the authoritative frown of the bishop, exclude the clergy, without exception or reserve, from the fox-chase and the card-table. We would entreat them most earnestly to draw a line, whether in their own conduct, or in the advice from superiors to the inferior, not according to what each individual 5 A

may just feel right for himself, but what the world at large, in its general, and perhaps vague, judgment of character, or in the comparison with those who have actually bespoke its respect by their piety, may be supposed to feel. We would entreat them not to be deterred, by the imputation of Puritanism, from that gravity of character, that reserved deportment, and that actual separation from the world, especially in all its varieties of public amusements, which marked the church in its very best times; which still marks, and even (may we say it?) dignities, a class, whose exaltation we suspect is only another word for our own voluntary depression; and which, if possible to our greater shame, affords an argument of superiority to the very Catholic priesthood itself, which we should find it difficult to answer. "They are well instructed," said Burnett, speaking of the then parochial Popish elergy, "in their religion; lead regular lives; and perform their parochial duties with a most wonderful diligence," &c.* Preface to Past. Care. These are considerations, which, we trust, we shall never be backward or afraid to urge with all our humble strength of reason and speech: to urge them publicly, and address them to the very ears and hearts of every member of our apostolica establishment ;-apostolical indeed,

* A pertinent observation on this same subject, in our present pamphlet, is that in p. 37: "The great body of the people can only reason from what they see: and if they behold, as is too often the case, that piety appertains to every species of worship but our own; that the Methodist, the Roman

Catholic, the Anabaptist, and Presbyterian ministry, have none of that slovenly indifference which marks the conduct of so many of our own clergy; they will conclude that that religion is the best, which appears to have, through its ministry, a more immediate inspiration from God; nor are the arguments with which you, sir, and other enlightened persons, are able to transfer the blame from the system to the individuals, capable of being perceived by their grosser apprehen

sions."

says the forementioned honest vr ter, in the same book, so long "we can shew a primitive spirit our administration, as well asa pr mitive pattern for our constitutio C. iv. And hopeless as our letter-m ter is inclined to think the reform tion, or lost the moral sense of a clerical instructors, we are not wiiout our persuasion, that such an a plication to their own sense of dut and, we might add, interest als would be more effectual than arr remonstrance, however loud and pe emptory, through the medium of i legislator and a chancellor of exchequer.

We have said interest, not inderd to intimate this to be a leading m tive with the great body of clergy, so much as to carry forwa our remarks another stage, to IN complaints uttered by our inform against the usual distribution church patronage, both public wi private. Here indeed, as being 1 great public patron, we can understand and admit an address to the moral and political feelings of Mr. We would indeed, with Perceval. him, address ourselves to every pos sessor of ecclesiastical preferment throughout these realms. And this we would do, not only on the score of that heavy moral responsibility with which, by inheritance, or by whatever other means, they have be come invested; but also, as we have said, on the very footing of interest; and on a view of the very great danger to which the church itself, over which they hold that patronage, is exposed, at this very moment, by the method in which it is applied. We have no hesitation in saying, that, as a ge neral principle, within the purview of the legislature, the existing mode of church patronage is preferable to the one often proposed in lien of itviz. popular suffrage-much more to any other crude expedient, according to the fancy of still bolder experimentalists. Besides, we believe there is that reverence, and justly so, for the established rights of private property, in this country, that

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all changes in that respect (if any had been conceived by our author) are to be considered as in the last degree chimerical and impracticable. But not so a change, upon due and temperate representation, in the minds and feelings of many of our great public as well as private patrons of ecclesiastical preferment. To them we should expect a statement to speak in the most impressive accents, that should represent to them the tremendous hazard in these times, as well as criminality in all, which is attached to a misapplication of their sacred trust. These are times in which we must sorrowfully own, that the ministry of the Established Church, through a concatenation not wholly in their own power, are held in a disrespect unknown in former days. There is but little or no respect to their office, as such; and that which they conciliate to their persons, they often hold in common only with those who, in point of prescription, have no equal claims on the apostolical title. The contempt thus existing, thus increasing, towards the church, is likely, in the nature of things, to extend itself to the state; and therefore we have no hesitation in saying, that the patron who prefers to his benefice a man calculated by his misconduct to feed, or even by his neutrality to excuse, that contempt for the order, is aiming a blow at the constitution of England;-a blow that will be felt, inasmuch as we believe every such unworthy minister to be a rot in the very heart of the building, and a mark for the lightnings of vengeance. --And here most especially, though in the respectful language of bumility, we should address those venerable fathers of our own church, at once the objects and the dispensers of the most important patronage which our constitution knows. We should entreat them to reflect upon their superior elevation, by which they are necessarily constituted the public examples, in this as in all other religious and moral respects, to the na

tion at large. Under the sanction of the immortal Hooker, we would presume to ask, "Shall we look for care in admitting whom others present, if that which some of yourselves confer be at any time corruptly bestowed? A foul and ugly kind of deformity it hath, if a man do but think what it is for a bishop to draw commodity and gain from those things whereof he is left a free bestower, and that in trust, without any other obligation than his sacred order only, and that religious integrity which hath been presumed on in him. Simoniacal corruption, I may not, for honour's sake, suspect to be amongst men of so great place. So often they do not, I trust, offend by sale, as by unadvised gift of such preferments, wherein that ancient canon should specially be remembered, which forbiddeth a bishop to be led by human affection in bestowing the things of God." Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book vii. sect. 24.

To you then, Reverend Fathers, do we look, as masters of a key which is to let in or exclude the most dangerous enemies both of church and state. To you we look, for an influence (may we say it?) which shall extend over the whole of that lay patronage, with which you are so immediately and necessarily in contact ;-an influence which shall (by means which you are so competent to devise) gradually bring to the doors of your palaces, candidates for preferment, who shall hereafter reflect neither on your own fidelity, nor on the dignity of that order over which you preside. To you we look for that authoritative encouragement of learning and the study of theology, amongst the youth as well as more advanced of your respective clergy, which shall secure amongst them the spirit as well as the form of religion; or, at least, leave them without the excuse of ignorance for their mal-administrations, or, as it is studiously represented in effect, the excuse of your neglect for their own. To you most

particularly we look, for controuling the outward behaviour of our authorised instructors, and for proscribing, from the leaders appointed to conduct us to heaven, those habits which must inevitably prove to us their indifference as to what path we take. In a word, to you it belongs, we had almost said exclusively, to stigmatize with effect amongst them, "as the worst heresy, a bad life;" and to make inattention to their Bibles or to their flocks, levity in amusement, or worldliness in temper, a crime of deeper dye, as assuredly the Day of Judgment will make it, than even the utmost rigour in the opposite extreme, than either Calvinism in doctrine or enthusiasm in ministerial labours.

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The Healing Waters of Bethesda : a Sermon preached at Buxton Wells, to the Company assembled there for the Benefit of the Medicinal Waters, on Whitsunday, June 2, 1811. By the Rev. CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN, D. D. late Vice-Provost of the College of Fort William, in Bengal. London: Ca

dell and Davies.
pp. 36.

1811. 8vo,

OUR readers are so well acquainted with the claims which the author of this sermon has on their attention, that we shall think it necessary to do little more than to apprize them of its publication. It will unques tionably be found inferior in interest, by those who much affect novelty, to his former discourses; but it is inferior to none of them in respect to the sound scriptural instruction which it conveys. Those who have read the Family Sermon (taken from the Homilies) inserted above in the present number, will be struck with the identity of the sentiments expressed in it, on the subject of man's fallen state, with

those of Dr. Buchanan. Scriptures declare," our author telis us, "that man was created in the image of God; that is, he resen bled God in those moral qualities which a created being could possess. But man fell from this high estate, like the angels which sinned,' and he thus lost the divine image" "High intellectual qualities remait with man; but his heart is de praved, and in his will and affec tions he is alienated from God. Now, our Saviour hath declared, that man, being thus depraved by nature, must be renewed, and, i it were, born again,' before he can see the kingdom of God. And this change of heart, and the grace which produces it, are the subject of the glad tidings of the Gospel. Man's chief dignity then is, that he is a subject of mercy; a candida for a new nature; an heir of immortality. Man lost the image of God by the fall; and the Son of God hath descended from heaven to restore that image; that is, to restore it to such a degree of righ teousness in this life, that God may look upon it with complacency, and receive it to himself, to be perfected in glory."

We were struck with Dr. Bucha. nan's remarks on the subject of repentance. The word " repent," is our translation, is sometimes ambiguous. Judas is said to have " rêpented himself." But the word, thus translated, Meraμeλrels sig. nifies more properly anxiety and solicitude after the performance of some action. The Christian grace of repentance is always expressed by the word uɛravola, the proper signification of which is, a change of mind from evil to good. "It is,” as Dr. Buchanan expresses it, "a change of heart from sin to righteousness; a revolution, rather than a reformation; a putting off the old man, and putting on the new man." This change he describes as never theless progressive, and as obtained by the use of the means which God hath appointed; the first step to

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