likely to continue there in spite of all the Society's professions.*

Deceit and hypocrisy, however, are not the only commodities in which this Society deals. Misrepresentation and falsehood are also amongst the articles of its traffic; for in one of its late reports, on page the twenty-ninth, it states that" a Dissenting Minister in a large and populous town asserts, that within eleven miles of him there are twenty-nine villages, containing a population of 10,220, destitute of religious instruction either in the Established Church, or among Dissenters." Now the Home Missionary Society has been repeatedly challenged to produce proof of this assertion, but has never yet done so. It is, therefore, evidently a falsehood, and one of the boldest and most impudent falsehoods that ever was fabricated, and one of the basest and most outrageous attacks on the Church that is to be met with. Where is the shame of such men? Where were their " tender consciences" forsooth, when they asserted that the Clergy of nine and twenty villages, all within eleven miles of one town, are so utterly negligent of their duty, as never to perform the service in their respective Churches? Shame! shame! upon such sanctified slander!! The scandalous falsehood was undoubtedly asserted to “beguile the unstable," and to make the ignorant believe that there is such great dearth of religious instruction, for the purpose of getting money out of their pockets to support their preaching hirelings, who are continually strolling about the country and propagating the licentious principles of Congregational Independency;

* A Meeting-house is now about to be built in this town, which, when erected, as the sum of FOUR HUNDRED pounds is furnished by some man or body of men in London, because the people would not VOLUNTARILY build one for themselves, will for ever stand not only a monument of the hypocrisy and perfidy of the Home Missionary Society, but also of the utter inefficiency of the pretended" VOLUNTARY SYSTEM" and the gross inconsistency of its deluded adherents.

+See British Magazine, May, 1832, p. 288. This is a most excellent Magazine, containing information of the highest importance to the Clergy, and to every friend of our excellent Church.

"of this sort are they who creep into the houses, and lead captive silly women."* Dissenters do say that this Society is contributed to by some of the Clergy, but I must hope that this too is a falsehood, asserted for the purpose of impressing some Churchmen with a favourable idea of its proceedings. I cannot imagine that any Clergyman can be so misled as to subscribe to a Society, whose object is to propagate the unscriptural notions of Congregational Independency, and to circumvent and undermine the Established Church, and that by the most dishonourable and unhallowed

means.

As a further illustration of the spirit and principles by which Dissenting Teachers are actuated towards the Church, they hailed the appearance of Beverley's infamous letter to the Archbishop of York with joy and delight and not only so, but bought it and lent it about, and exerted themselves to the very utmost to push it into circulation, not only amongst their own people, but wherever they could get it in. Some worthy Dissenters, however did, to my knowledge, manifest their good sense, by condemning it in toto, as the most malicious and calumnious thing they had ever seen. And, indeed, let any man possessed of the slightest feelings, I will not say of a Christian, but merely of human nature, for I care not if he be an avowed Infidel, read only about half the twentieth page of that precious epistle, (mine is of the fifth edition) and say whether he ever read any thing so truly fiendlike in all his life. For there, after most immodestly describing "all the rogues and villains in the kingdom,' under all the characters which they can sustain, he most deliberately says, 66 IF THEY WOULD ALL DIE TOMORROW IT WOULD BE VERY DESIRABLE." Yes, the holy, the pious, the Dissenting Mr. Beverley hesitates not to say that "it would be very desirable" if all the wicked people in the kingdom were cut off" to-morrow"

* 2d Timothy iii, 6.

in the midst of their sins and transgressions-their guilty souls summoned to the bar of an angry and terrible God, to receive that awful sentence, “ Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."* Who, worthy of the name of a man, could pronounce such an awful event as "desirable," or even think of it, without shuddering at the horrible idea? Well might Solomon say that even "the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."+ How different the language of Mr. Beverley, himself a sinful creature, from that of the blessed Redeemer, in refe rence to his enemies, even when suffering the bitter pangs of crucifixion, heightened by their reviling taunts. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

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But to crown the whole, this very Mr. Beverley, after thus " dealing damnation round the land," has transformed himself into a Minister of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his Ministers also be transformed as the Ministers of righteousness. § And if the sermon which Mr. Beverley has published, may be considered-as undoubtedly it may-a fair specimen of what he preaches, he has clearly made out his title to be any thing but a Minister of Christ. He, however, modestly styles himself such; and if denouncing damnation to the Church-if reviling and slandering the Clergy as Priests of AntiChrist-Priests of the Whore of Babylon-and even as murderers!!!-if delighting in bitterness, wrath, clamour, and false accusations, with " envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness," constitute a Minister of the Gospel of Christ, then is Mr. Beverley one in sincerity and in truth-one "in whom there is no guile." And as pares cum paribus facile congregantur," birds of a feather readily flock together,'

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* Matt. xxv. 41. #Luke xxiii, 34.

+ Proverbs xii, 10.
? 2d Corinthians xi, 4.

Mr. Beverley is become a Congregational Independent Minister, and a member and speaker of the famous Ecclesiastical Knowledge Society, of which, indeed, I confess I know not a more worthy adjunct, nor a Society more worthy of such a precious and truly honouring addition. I cannot but congratulate Dissenters on the acquisition of one so exceedingly well calculated to assist in upholding " the cause"-one so verily honourable to the "Dissenting interest."*

I could adduce numerous other instances, illustrative of the spirit and principles by which Dissenting Teachers are actuated with regard to the Church, but my limits expressly forbid it; and, indeed, enough has been said already for the purpose of showing that which must be evident to the least observation. F could also, but for the same reason, give an amusing exposé of the various mean tricks and petty scheming of Dissenting Teachers and Congregations, sometimes in unison with each other, for the advancement of their common cause, and very frequently in opposition to each other, in support of their respective whims and capricious fancies; but I may leave that for Mr. James to accomplish-he is far more competent to such a task than I am. He has given us some faint sketches of some of the proceedings amongst Dissenters in his "Church Member's Guide," and could have drawn a far more striking likeness of Dissent had he pleased. He has there told the world that Dissent abounds with evils of almost every description; and knowing such to be the case, how he can conscientiously remain connected with such a system-a system which he has himself shewn to be so unscriptural and full of evil, it is most difficult to imagine. Why do not such men abandon it at once and set their consciences at rest?*

"The cause" and "the Dissenting interest" written in full would be the cause of the Dissenting Ministers" and the Dissenting Ministers" interest," for the teachers are certainly the only persons at all" interested" by Dissent, the people, out of whom they live by begging the money out of their pockets, are the very reverse of it.

They know and acknowledge it to be wrong, and yet they adhere to it; but where are their consciencestheir "tender consciences ?" they cannot be easy-it is impossible! Such men may be enjoying a kind of distinction and respectability in their present stations, which they would feel it hard to immolate at the shrine of conscience; but what satisfaction will eminence of such a description afford them when this world shall be receding from their view? An easy conscience is, moreover, no uncomfortable companion through life.

One of the many evils arising out of Dissent and schism, and not the least, is, that it destroys almost all that authority and discipline, which the most super ficial reader of the New Testament cannot fail to perceive inalienably belongs to the Church. Should the Church proceed to the excommunication of one of her members who had disgraced his holy profession, and dishonoured that holy name by which he was called, what would be the result? Why he would laugh at the wholesome exercise of that, the most awful part of the authority of the Church, and immediately take shelter under the principles of Independency, and very probably become a schismatic, if not a heretic, by uniting with one of the hundred sects of Dissenters, who would any one of them gladly receive him. If reprehended in any respect, he would immediately reply in the language, and consistently with the principles, of Dissent, that he had a right to reject or choose his own Spiritual Teacher wherever he pleased, and that he would do so; and that as he had full liberty of conscience, and no man had any right to exercise any authority whatever over him, he would act accordingly; for if he preferred being without any Spiritual Teacher at all, he had an undoubted right to enjoy such preference. Thus " in these days, when there is no king in Israel, every man doeth that which is right in his own eyes;" and considering, in the true spirit of Dissent, that he is lord of his own actions, indulges in unbridled licentiousness.