proposed, in throwing down the fences which they thought fit to set up and that their restrictions were the result of a policy very different indeed from the comprehensive philanthropy of their posterity. They seem to have thought, that, to enact laws with licence of transgression, was inconsistent with the nature of legislation; and they entertained odd notions about propriety and security, about which we seem to have no notions at all; and though they did relax from their rigour, and, in the genuine spirit of charity, did remit penalties to the tender consciences of honest and respectable Dissenters; they appear to have thought it impossible, that every ignorant mechanic or day-labourer should be allowed to plead his tender conscience as an exemption from the laws, as a qualification for a Christian teacher, as a justification for every error of his head, and for almost every corruption of his heart."

The vacillating, compromifing fyftem pursued in defending the rights of the effablishment, as oppofed to the regular and unbending hoftility of its adverfaries, is juftly expofed.

It is worthy of observation, that the enemies of the establishment act by system, and that our counteraction is all by fits and starts. They reason, and they prove their reasoning by their modes of acting, according to the maxim which the Roman historian has put into the mouth of Hannibal.- Inferimus bellum, infestisque signis irruimus-, tantè audaciùs fortiúsque pugnaturi, quantò major spes majorque animus, inferentis est vim, quàm arcentis.' We on the other hand seem, for the most part, to 'dwell secure after the manner of the Zidonians,' and are so far from apprehending danger, that we do not fortify the places which we know to be daily attacked. What, however, we want in vigour we make up in liberality: we have openly assured our enemies that our officers are not trust-worthy; and that we can neither maintain discipline among ourselves, nor repel aggression. As to any decisive measures, by which the Establishment may be strengthened, and continue in strength, whatever to that effect may have been devised; most certainly nothing has been done.

"If I shall appear to talk rather like a churchman than a politician, no man who knows what the Church of England is in relation to the English government, will condemn me on that ac count. Though I do not, as the manner of some is, affect to weigh good and evil in a philosophical balance, and to graduate truth and falshood, law and licentiousness, by the scale of present

* I allude to newspaper reports of parliamentary debates in the two preceding parliaments.

expediency:

1

expediency: though I do not assume that sapient apathy, which might easily calculate that the Church will last my time: though I conceive that, if our forefathers had calculated with the same wisdom, our philosophy would now be engaged in a different kind of forbearance; and though I swim against the tide of popu larity ;—let my reader remember, that a true son of the Church of England disdains alike the intolerance of the bigot, and the wild ravings of the enthusiast; and can, on such a subject, mean nothing else, but that the Church, which is founded in wisdom and piety, may, by wisdom and piety, be preserved and that they who are of the Church may shew, at least as much zeal in her defence, as they who are against her do for her subversion.

"When we consider the contests in former reigns between ecclesiastical parties, we discover amidst all their acrimony one acknowledged principle. Though high-church might sometimes overshoot the mark, and low church occasionally fall short of it; still it was agreed on both sides, that the safety of the state was included in the safety of the Church. Though the high churchman's zeal induced him to magnify dangers, which were invisible to common eyes: and though the low churchman might look through an inverted telescope at the bugbears of his more nervous brethren; still, amidst their hostility, there was, excepting in some very low churchmen indeed, a professed attachment to the Church. But the question is not now, whether high church or low church shall predominate: nor whether resistance or nonresistance be the religious duty of subjects: but whether it be expedient to exasperate the common enemy, by resorting to the laws. We do not talk about what are the best methods of securing the Establishment, but whether, in the course of twenty years, there will be any Establishment at all.

"This modern doctrine of expediency, which, while it palsies the very principles of integrity, often purchases the reputation of wisdom at a very easy rate, is, in reality, nothing more than the shelter of a timid or slothful mind: and is, when applied to this case, as void of prudence, as it is of manly worth. In all cases of emergency men readily collect what must be done: and think of expediency only in relation to the means of doing it. But who, that is in possession of an estate, talks of the expediency of protecting his title, lest he should exasperate factitious claimants? Who, that has treasure in his house, talks about the expediency of locks and bars, lest he should be thought to suspect some of his neighbours? Or, who is there in the metropolis, that demurs to the expediency of lamps and watchmen, for fear of exasperating the heroes of the night? Are the enemies of the Establishment become so numerous and so formidable, (or how came they to be. so?) that it is a question of expediency whether the laws shall protect it, or not?"

VOL. XIV.

Chm. Mag. March, 1808.

E E

The

The first letter clofes with fome excellent obfervations on the outcry about non-refidence.

"What abuses in the Church of England have been proved to exist? Why truly a bill was brought into parliament, to rescue some non-resident clergymen from the extortion of informers on the statute of Henry VIII.-The non residence of the clergy was, at that time, the great DIANA of the day: though it is certain that, on that subject, the clamour was loudest, where there was little knowledge; and that zeal in the cause, overlooked, as is common, the propriety of inquiry. That at least one-half of the parochial clergy had deserted their benefices, seemed to be the general notion: and compulsory menaces were holden out, even in parliamentary speeches, against the defaulters, to whom was attributed such laxity of principle, and such negligence of character, as brought the established religion into contempt. The number of absentees was considered as so numerous, that the immense sum of eight thousand pounds, the first instance of parliamentary bounty that the Church has received for many years,— was appropriated for the relief of those curates, who should be ejected from their curacies, by the return of the scandalous incumbents to their place and duty. Far be it from me to insinuate that the appropriation of an occasional sum to the relief of a number of impoverished clergymen, is not as becoming an act of deliberative wisdom, as a large reward to the inventor of a new disease: or as the fixing of a large annuity on any of the connections of a dead or living demagogue; because I humbly conceive that the claims of the former may be more adapted to sound policy, as well as more creditable to the mercy of the grantors: though other reasons (from which justice cannot be excluded) may ope. rate more powerfully in favour of the latter.-But this is high matter, and I return to my subject.

"I do not recollect, and it is not worth while to investigate, at how much per head, this wonderful charity of parliament was intended to be doled out; but take it at 501. the number of nonresident clergy would be 160. If you rise in benevolence, and set the favourite sum of 75 l. as the intended compensation, you reduce the number of non-residents to 106, leaving 501. of the fund untouched. If any man can believe that the absence of 160 clergymen from their livings, was the real cause of all the clamour which produced this extraordinary bounty, I give him joy on his faith: if he can believe, on the supposition that the Church was falling through the neglect of 160 men: and that it could be buttressed up by giving 501. each to 160 other men: I give him joy on his wisdom;-but I humbly take leave to disbelieve both those articles. With respect to the calculation on these eight thousand pounds, there appears, by the event, to have been a very aukward error in its first concoction. I am credibly informed, that, of the whole eight thousand pounds, appropriated to the

ejected

ejected curates, only two hundred have been drawn. If this be true, it will evidently follow, that the ejected curates were all so wealthy as to disregard the bounty; or, that the number of negligent, or non-resident clergy was exactly forty times less than the calculation."

We fhall resume the confideration of thefe valuable. "Strictures in our next number.

The proneness of a Philofophizing Spirit to embrace Error; with Remarks upon Mr. Luncaffer's new Syftem of Education, pointing out its Defects and Errors with regard to Religious Inftruction and Moral Management: a Sermon preached at the yearly Meeting of the Sunday Schools, in the Collegiate Church of Manchester, on Monday May 18, 1807; and now published at the request of the Reverend the Warden and Fellows of the faid Church. By the Rev. R. BARLOW, Mafter of the Free Grammar School of Winwick, and Minifter of Burtonwood. Manchester printed, pp. 32, 18.

PR

REFIXED to this elegant and argumentative difcourfe is the following account of the folemnity on which it was preached, taken from the newspapers.

"Manchester exhibited a gratifying fpectacle yesterday, in the Anniversary Meeting of the Sunday Schools, conducted under the direction of the clergy of the established church. Soon after nine o' clock, the children of the feveral fchools, preceded by their teachers, and the clergy of their respective diftricts, affembled in King Street, and St. Ann's Square. At ten o'clock they began to move in proceffion towards the collegiate church, preceded by a band of mufic, by the boroughreeve, magiftrates and clergy, and by a confiderable number of the moft refpe&table ladies and gentlemen of the town. The day was fine, and the children amounting to nearly five thousand, made a moft interefting appearance, particularly when placed in the church. The effect of fo large a number of children, uniting with one voice in the refponses and in the pfalm singing, was truly fublime and affecting. The fervice of the day was read by the Rev. Dr. Blackburn, the warden; and an appropriate fermon was

preached

preached on the occasion, by the Rev. R. Barlow, master of the free grammar-school, Winwick. The church was unusually well attended; and the effect of this folemn fpectacle, a spectacle not perhaps to be paralleled in any other provincial town in the world, was depicted, in vifible emotions of tenderness and delight, on every countenance."

The text is 1 Theff. v. 21, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good," and this apoftolical direction is well applied to the circumftances of the prefent time. After noticing the late ftruggle of the Romish church to revive its influence. in this kingdom, the preacher takes a masterly view of the vain and philofophizing spirit which has infected a confiderable portion of our great men; a fpirit which in the full effect of its tendency, would explode religion, fubvert mo. rality, and extinguifh patriotifm.'

The origin and the character of this fceptical fpirit are thus happily traced, and forcibly delineated.

"In the age immediately subsequent upon the revival of literature, Science had no higher ambition than the recovery of truth from oblivion. Emerging intellect rested in implicit knowledge, and opinion was built upon authority. The rage for-theory followed. Judgment became the dupe of Fancy, and Reason was lost in the labyrinths of her own ingenuity. A more enlightened age, with the laudable view of laying the foundation of philosophy in truth, assumed demonstrative experiment as the test of truth; a test, which certainly secured the exclusion of error, however it might narrow the range of enquiry. The frequent impracticability, however, of this test, even in philosophical researches, necessarily induced a habit of suspending the judgment. From this habit, and from the frequent detection of error under the garb and acceptation of truth, arose the proneness of philosophy to scepticism.

"Had the experimental test been confined to researches purely philosophical, the interests of religion would not have suffered. The spirit of philosophy is necessarily sceptical; but this spirit has been carried into enquiries in which doubt is dangerous, and decision a duty. That truth which it most behoves us to know, is the subject of belief or rational conviction, and is, in its nature, undemonstrable. Yet the law of our nature obliges us to seek and follow it, and has rendered its discovery and adoption necessary to our right conduct and welfare. Necessary or involuntary inductions of reason daily force upon the most obstinate sceptic truths of this description, the validity of which, the condition of his being obliges him to acknowledge by his actions. On many points which challenge belief, man, from the necessity of acting, must form a decision on every such point, when it involves his interest, or would determine his conduct, such decision is the dic

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