they are compelled to deem it wrong to establish Protestantism in defiance of the people. Perceiving, too, that Establishments are far better adapted to fortify and perpetuate error, than to aid in the propagation of truth, and that unendowed Popery has gained upon established Protestantism, they are led to the conclusion, that religion and sound policy alike recommend the total abolition of an ecclesiastical Establishment, which has so singularly failed to answer either its religious or its political pur

pose.

Whether Mr. Ward would go this length with us, we cannot tell; but we hope that there is a large number of sound and pious Protestants within the pale of the Church, who would prefer that the temporal possessions of the Irish Establishment should be secularized, rather than appropriated, in part, to the endowment of either Socinianism or Popery. Let them not wonder if what, as an alternative, would seem to them preferable, is deemed by us, for the interest of religion, positively desirable.

In further proof that the pending controversy does not lie between Churchmen and Dissenters, we are happy to be able to refer to the liberal sentiments expressed by some even of the clerical body, who have escaped the contagion of party animosity. We have before us a Sermon addressed by a Country Clergyman to his Parishioners, and issued from a provincial press, which exhibits so amiable and catholic a spirit, and does so much honour to the head and heart of the preacher, that we are happy in having the opportunity of bringing it under the notice of our readers, Mr. Turner, the incumbent of Barley, near Royston, is, we understand, the son of Dr. Turner, Dean of Norwich, and late Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge. In a prefatory address, he alludes with great kindness to the Dissenters with whom circumstances have placed him in immediate connexion, and whom he has found, by practical experience, to be not so 'bigoted to their creed, or so hostile to the Church, as to refuse their co-operation with him, in any means by which the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus can be extended upon earth.' And he avows his conviction, that if other ministers of his Church. would divest themselves of party bigotry, and, instead of regarding Dissenters in their parish as opponents and encroachers, ⚫ would call upon them as fellow Christians to unite in the spirit of Christian charity, such calls would in few cases be unheeded or unanswered.' His aim is, in this publication, to excite among Dissenters a kindlier feeling towards the Church, by producing a conviction on their minds, that a large majority of the 'Establishment are really anxious that she should be supported, "not from self-interested and worldly motives, but because they think, honestly and sincerely, that true religion and all the tem'poral benefits to society attendant on her train, may by such

6

means be largely diffused among mankind.' And with this view, he is induced publicly to declare, that some alteration in her government, some better adaptation to the religious wants ofthe people, her own stability, no less than the temper of the times, imperiously demands.'

That an honest reformation will be effected in her by the present government, I must confess that, individually, I doubt; and I cannot think my doubts unreasonable, when I see that the head of that government has exhibited, in the person of his own brother, not the fair promotion to which private excellence of character might justly be considered to entitle so near a relative of the Prime Minister, but a greedy and a grasping continuation of the very system of ecclesiastical jobbing, which out of office he denounced. And when, in addition to this, I look at the mode in which the measure for the relief of Dissenters, as to the marriage ceremony, has so lately been brought forward, and above all, at the spirit in which the ministers and their supporters in the House of Commons, met a motion for the withdrawal of the Bishops from the House of Lords, I must say I have neither much reliance on their wisdom, or much confidence in their honesty. They may be willing to go as far as they are compelled; the love of place ensures this; but they are not willing, judging by their acts, to go to the root of evils, and attack the main causes of the corruption and the abuses of the Church. The consequence of such conduct, revelation, no less than reason, has clearly demonstrated. The patch of new cloth placed upon the old garment, can only tend to make the rent worse; and I am confident the Church is in more danger from the support of false friends, than she is from all the bitterest assaults of her declared enemies. Would to God, that I could see reform commencing at the right end; but, whilst plurality and non-residence are charges which affect our rulers, it is not likely that these gross and crying abuses should ever be effectually corrected. To enforce consistency on others, they must first be consistent themselves. Whilst their time then is devoted to party politics, or occupied in courting the smiles of ministerial favour, it is not possible that they should that attention to their respective dioceses which the interests of religion, and the interests of the Church, (they should never be disunited,) alike require. You place them, as was eloquently said in the House of Commons, in situations where they are exposed to some of the strongest temptations of humanity, and then forget that they are men. There are Sees in which the duties of a Peer in parliament, might be made reconcileable with their duties as a Bishop. The two Archbishops, and the Bishop of London, might, by no very material alterations in their present functions, be admitted into the great council of the nation, and thus lend the aid of their pure and holy characters to the formation of our laws and the government of our country. But I am not singular in my opinion from many of my brethren, when I say, that I desire to see the Bishops, as a body, resign their places in the House of Lords. I care not, whether they are ranged on the side of ministers or against them: be it which way it will, it is alike dan

pay

gerous to liberty, and hurtful to the Church. An honest minister does not want the weapon; a corrupt minister should not have it. Considering then, as I do, this to be the first step in Church reform, and knowing that there exists an unwillingness to express that opinion, by very many who, nevertheless, sincerely entertain it, I have ventured candidly and explicitly to state my own sentiments, as a private minister of the Church of England; and would fain encourage all my brethren, who agree with me, no longer to continue silent, or to rest content with such temporizing measures as the moderation of Dissenters will allow the Government to get off with. It is not only their grievances we want to be redressed, but our own abuses to be corrected. Let us call then for a reform, as honest, and as radical in our ecclesiastical policy, as has lately been effected in our civil.

I am aware that what are popularly called the friends of our Church, will reject my opinions with abhorrence. But who, I ask, are these friends-are not many of them wolves in sheep's clothing? In what manner do they, at the present moment, regard the evangelical clergy? Am I wrong, then, in thinking that they are friends to her as a corrupt Church alone, or in supposing they would be her bit terest enemies, were she once purified from her pollutions? Am I uncharitable when I suggest, that much of that friendship is owing to the provision which she now enables them to make for their younger sons; and that the voice of many a Whig and Tory lord is loud in her defence, mainly because it is now in their power to ennoble and enrich their relatives, by the assistance of her wealth, and placing them as their political dependents in the House of Lords? Do away with this, and if the history of times gone by, at all enables us to reason upon times to come, would they not, in all human probability, be the very first persons to join in any measure of spoliation, which would place the revenues of our establishment within their own pockets? That there is a spirit of religious feeling abroad, which would resist this, I honestly believe; and that that spirit exists largely amongst the Dissenters as a body, I have always thought, and every day's experience has latterly confirmed. If my opinions on this point are erroneous, my conclusions false, I can only say, that I am thankful that the members of that community with whom I have been associated by circumstances, have been such favourable instances; whose conduct has evinced any thing but a spirit of hostility to the Church, or of bigotry towards myself, its unworthy minister.' pp. vi-xi.

From the sermon itself, we must make room for the following

extracts.

There may, probably, and there does exist amongst us, a difference of opinion as to religion, which I have no intention to allude to; but, whatever that difference may be, I feel that every religious mind must give one common answer to the question that I now put. Is the religion of Jesus essential to the moral welfare of society, not only in the hopes it holds out to us in a world to come, but in the rules by which it would regulate our conduct here? If it be, then, as many of you have known longer and better than I do, the best means of securing

our ease and happiness during life, and the only thing which can bring us peace and joy at the last, then I feel all our differences vanish from my sight; and whether Churchman or Dissenter, I know we are bound together in one common link, (cemented by a Saviour's blood,) and that the primary duty of us all, is, the extension and propagation of his religion and, if this be the duty of individuals, as I am confident you feel it is, if this injunction of our Lord be binding upon each of us, in the humble stations which we hold in society, then I conceive it must be admitted as a duty, if possible, more imperative, upon every christian legislature, to adopt means for the extension of religious instruction to every member of its community. A neglect in this point is, as far as I can see, as far as I can reason from the pages of my Bible, a neglect, for which, all those who have been gifted with authority on earth, will be called to a severe account in heaven. In this country, that principle has been admitted, and a portion of the national wealth has been appropriated to the purposes of religion. I talk not of its application here, but the principle on which I recognize an established Church, is, that it is essential for a christian state to find religious instruction for all its members. It must adopt, therefore, what it conceives to be the purest and the best form of giving that instruction; and without oppressing those who, from whatever cause it may be, dissent from that form, all its energies should be directed, all its encouragement extended, to the furtherance of those means which, in the humility of its wisdom, it has adopted. I know that, in making such assertions, as a minister of the favoured religion, I may meet with the accusation of bigotry and self interest; but inefficient as I feel, to explain to you as I could wish, the grounds on which my opinions rest, I feel too confident in their reason and strength, to fear that any incompetency of mine should ever weaken them. And I will not occupy your time, by bringing forward any of the arguments which the learned supporters of our Church have so copiously adduced. I am aware that I speak to many on this occasion, who are not members of our community; I address you not then as members of the Church of England, but, I do address you as members of the Church of Christ; as men whose wish, whose object, whose desire is, to have your motives and your conduct ever influenced by religion.

Throwing away, then, all the arguments of theory, I would maintain the necessity of a Church establishment, from the practical arguments which the peculiar circumstances of this village afford. It was my lot, when called to the station I now hold, to find a rival establishment, to the actual utility of which, it is in my power now to speak. Time has made me acquainted with many of its members; and bigot should I indeed be, were I to refuse to say, that its ministers have engendered a spirit of piety, and given an extensive knowledge of the scriptures to almost all their followers with whom it has been my lot to converse upon the subject, or whom I have seen placed in circumstances which called upon them to evince that piety, or look to those scriptures for support. What I say then on the present occasion, God knows, is said in no spirit of hostility to them; and I trust I have been sufficiently long amongst you, to render any such declaration, on my part, needless. I think that a man's religious principles are not

VOL. XII.-N.S.

H

to veer about with the breath of every passing doctrine; and he who, without good and substantial cause, quits the professions which he once held, is inflicting an injury on the cause of religion in general, and affording an example which the light-minded, the wavering, and the irreligious will seldom fail to make a bad use of. To the man then who has been brought up, I will not say in opposition to the Church, but in nonconformance to her doctrines, if I see the fruits which he produces, are those of a holy and religious life, I should say, in the language of Solomon, "Meddle not with those who are given to change;" and I trust that personal vanity will never lead me to wish, any more than at this minute I do, that my congregation should be ever swelled at the expense of an establishment, to whose moral use, I can offer my humble but willing testimony.

‹ But if I admit that much piety is to be found within your walls, there is, you know, quite as well as I, much impiety to be found without;-many a field in which, were your exertions ten times more zealous than they are, as far as human probability can reach, those exertions would be for ever useless. To every voluntary member of your communion, your ministers can speak in the language of admonition and reproof; but with those who refuse to recognize their authority, there is no connecting tie; and if the legislature of the country did not provide the means, there must be many sheep without a shepherd, whose peculiar duty it was to feed them with the living waters of eternal life. But, as a minister of the Church of England, I feel it my duty not only to plough upon a willing soil; I am not only concerned with those who are in communion with my Church here, and many of whom I trust to meet in a happier communion in heaven, but I am bound also to extend any benefit, whether of temporal or moral good, in my power to confer, to all whom the law has placed within the sphere of my ministry. Those benefits may be, as they are I know in many cases, rejected and despised, but such rejection does not invalidate the truth of what I say; and the laws of our country have placed me here the religious servant of you all, whose assistance and advice it is in your power to claim, not as a favour, but a right. The state has so far complied with the injunction of the text, and evinced its love of Christ, that it has not left the care of your souls to chance and casualty, but, as far as in its power, has found the means of having all his sheep here fed. Although, then, upon the present occasion, I speak to many who are not members of our Church, I honestly believe, that I speak to men who are not so clouded by prejudice, so blinded by bigotry, as not to admit the moral utility of this principle. But you will here say, perhaps, the principle is good, but the practice is deficient. This is neither the place or the time for me to allude to what I conceive to be the cause of such deficiencies, or to suggest what I conceive should be their remedies. But I am willing to say now, what I am ready to say at all times, and before all persons, that the sole principle on which I recognize the justice of a Church establishment is, that it does contribute to the moral welfare of society, does comply with the injunction of the text, does feed the sheep of Christ.' pp. 6-12.