his anathema, and which we verily believe, next to the anarchical principles of the French revolutionists, is the most anti-social doctrine ever propagated. Unless religion aids the cause of virtue, it is, comparatively, valueless; but the doctrine of election divests the Christian faith of every moral obligation. Of what importance can an individual's conduct be, if his salvation depends solely on the fiat of a foregone conclusion. In the words of JOHN WESLEY, who has stated the case with equal force and truth, the sum of all is this: "one in twenty (suppose) of mankind are elected; nineteen in twenty are reprobated! The elect shall be saved, do what they will: the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can.”* Affirm till doomsday that there can be no election without faith, and no faith without works, this is the essence of Calvinism; for which, diabolism would be a better name; and in the worst and bloodiest idolatry that ever defiled the earth, there is nothing so horrid, so monstrous, so impious. Transubstantiation, or the real presence, was the great test of popery at the time of the Reformation. If a man, like Mr. O'Connell, for example, were to affirm his belief that the body and blood of Christ are actually taken and swallowed, at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, he was hurried off to the stake, without pity or remorse. Yet, for the life of us, we cannot attach any other than a real and corporeal interpretation to the following interrogatories in the Catechism:: Question. What is the inward part or thing signified? Answer. The body and blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper. Question. What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby? Answer. The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by the bread and wine. If this is not transubstantiation we do not know how it can be otherwise expressed. But it may be urged, that our apprehensions are wholly groundless, and no harm is done: that the catechism is intended only for the instruction of children; that it is mere words learnt by rote, like the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments, at an age when the understanding is so little unfolded that no ideas are attached to them. Granted: but if the formula is to be so construed, we think it had better be consigned to the exclusive use of the dame shools, and the public saved the expense of maintaining so many well-fed clergymen, chiefly employed in impressing and confirming it on the minds of our juvenile population. Another morceau from the mass-book is retained in the Visitation of the Sick; in which the Protestant priest actually grants absolution of sin with as much sang froid and authority as Leo. X. The sick person is directed to make a confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled in any weighty matter; the priest then tenders a carte blanche in manner and form following: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his church to absolve all sin * Dr. Southey's Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 371. ners who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences; and by his authority, committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.-Amen. In the Morning Service is a form of absolution; but the terms in which it is given are less explicit; and the priest only declares a remission of sins to those who truly repent. Considering the era when the Common Prayer was framed, it is not surprising it retains some remnants of the superstition out of which it was fabricated. For aught we know, the power of granting absolution may have scriptural authority; at all events it must often prove salutary, affording consolation at a moment when human nature most needs support, and compensating for any fears and anxieties which may have been felt during past life, by the certain hope held out of future forgiveness and beatitude. The mode of filling a Church of England priest with the Holy Ghost, and endowing him with the invaluable elixir to forgive sins, and keep out of hell, or let drop into it whom he pleases, is not less extraordinary than the gift itself. It must be premised that no person can be admitted to any benefice unless he has been first ordained a priest; and then, in the language of the law, he is termed a clerk in orders. The mode of such ordination is thus described in the Liturgy. "The bishop, with the priest present, shall lay their hands severally upon every one that receiveth the order of priesthood; the receivers humbly kneeling upon their knees, and the bishop saying, "Receive the Holy Ghost, for the office and work of a priest in the church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands.-Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained." Truly this is marvellous in our eyes! The bare idea of any one who can swallow three bottles of wine, and leap a five-barred gate, being filled with the Holy Ghost, makes the gorge rise. But then the necromancy of this wonderful infusion. The bishop, only imposing his right reverend hands, saying, "Receive the Holy Ghost,' and instantly, with the suddenness of the electric fluid, the Holy Ghost passes from the fingers of the bishop into the inside of-perhaps, a Clogher, a Philpotts, a Hay, a Blacow, or a Daniels. Talk of miracles having ceased, -they are performing daily. Talk of popery, of indulgences, and absolutions. Talk of the poor, naked, godless, unenlightened Indian, who wanders on the banks of the Niger or the Orinoque. Talk of the Chinese, who cuts his deity with scissars, or moulds him in paste. Talk of the wretched Hindoo, who immolates his victim to Juggernaut; or of the wild Tartar, who worships the invisible Lama. Talk of all or any of these, or go to what age or country we may, for examples of supernatural pretension, can we find any to match this part of the rites of the Church of England? We shall now leave to the Reader's further consideration the subject of the church ritual. It is only a work of men's hands, and cannot, of course, claim the same infallibility as the Holy Scriptures. An order in council is any time sufficient authority for introducing alterations in 9 the Liturgy; and, even within our own time, it has been subjected both to curtailment and additions. George IV., it will long be remembered, ordered the name of Queen Caroline to be struck out, as a person unworthy of the prayers of the people. Lord Sidmouth, who now forms a fragment of the dead weight, during his secretaryship, directed four prayers to be interpolated, and they form a regular portion of the church service. In the few observations we have ventured to put forward, our purpose has been only to advert to such parts as seemed most startling to vulgar apprehension; and in doing this, we trust, nothing irreverent has escaped us, or in derogation of the general utility of the Book of Common Prayer. With all its imperfections we greatly prefer the established ceremonial to the random out-pourings of the conventicle; and think the measured solemnities deliberately framed for the various occasions of life, preferable to those wild exhortations which have no standard but the intellect of the preacher, his thirst of gain or popularity, or the passions and fatuity of his hearers. VII. NUMBER, WEALTH, MORAL AND EDUCATIONAL EFFICIENCY OF PROTESTANT DISSENTERS. The Roman slaves were never numbered lest they should discover their power and importance. A similar policy appears to have been observed towards the dissenters. Although we have had three censuses of the people within the last thirty years, in the taking of which various inquiries were made into the numbers employed in different trades and occupations; no inquiry was made into the number of the different religious sects. Were the legislature, in this case, apprehensive that they might be called upon, agreeably to the dogma of Dr. Paley on the policy of patronizing the most popular faith, to commence another religious reformation, by altering the present disposition of ecclesiastical endowments? Whatever may have been the motive, the fact is as stated -that no public inquiry has ever been instituted into the relative number of Separatists and Episcopalians. In the session of 1829, returns were ordered by the House of Commons of the number of churches and chapels of the establishment, and of the number of places of worship not of the establishment.* With the exception of Lancaster, no returns have yet been published from any other county. The only public document which throws light on the question, is a parliamentary paper, ordered to be printed May 29th, 1812, and re-printed by the Lords in 1818. This document comprises only the results of returns from parishes containing a population of 1000 persons and upwards. In 1881 parishes of this description, containing a population of 4,937,789, there were 2,533 churches and chapels belonging to the established church; the number of persons they would contain 1,856,108: in the same number of parishes there were 3,438 dissenting places of worship. From this it might be in * Votes of the House of Commons, June 19, 1829. ferred the number of dissenters considerably exceeds the number of conformists. No doubt many small parishes not included in the return would have a church and not a dissenting chapel. On the other hand, the manufacturing population consists chiefly of dissenters; and it is to be observed, that dissenting chapels are generally more crowded and afford greater seat-room in the same space than the churches of the establishment. A dissenting minister cannot subsist without a large audience, but the income of a Church of England priest is secure, if he have no audience at all, nor even a church to preach in. The structure, too, of churches-the system of proprietary pews-generally empty and locked up to guard against intrusion-the vast space taken up by the mayor's pew, the churchwardens' pew, and other parish officials, leaves little accommodation for the poor, and they have no alternative but to be crammed up-often standing in aisles, or driven to what are called free-seats, where they can neither hear nor see-or resort to a dissenting chapel. In the absence of more complete official returns, the Dissenters them. selves have attempted to solve this important question in public statistics, The supplement to the Congregational Magazine for December, 1829, comprises the results of very elaborate inquiries into the number of the places of worship of different religious persuasions. There are some inaccuracies in this statement which we cannot reconcile; but the data it affords, aided by information from other sources, will enable us to make out a tolerable exposition of the relative numbers, and the religious and educational efficiency of the several classes of religionists. The great religious denominations of the day are those of the Established Church, the Roman Catholics, and the Protestant Dissenters. The number of churches and chapels of the Establishment is 11,600 ;* of Roman Catholics, 388:+ of Protestant Dissenters, 7,634. Supposing the number of attendants at each place of worship is the same, the following will be the result: *Church Establishment founded in Error, p. 86. This estimate, we apprehend, has been founded on erroneous data. In many parishes there is no church at all, though the tithe in these parishes is collected with as much rigour as in the rest. In the fine county of Kent there are thirteen parishes which have no churches, and forty-four parishes, each having less than 100 inhabitants, none of whom hardly ever see the face of a parson, and yet who have tithes exacted from them to the last blade of grass. It is obligatory both on bishops and incumbents that parsonage houses should not fall into decay, yet it is a fact that there are 3000 churches and parochial chapels to which neither house nor glebe is attached. With the immense revenues of the established church it must be sickening and disgusting to her best friends, to think how her interests have been neglected by those who have been wallowing in her wealth. + Catholic Laity's Directory. It appears from this that, in point of number, the advantage is on the side of the national establishment. But from what has been previously observed, it may be presumed that this is a partial mode of stating the question. It is probable the Church of England has the greatest number of ministers and places of religious worship; we doubt, however, its numerical superiority; at all events, the efficiency of an army is not to be estimated by its skeleton regiments, or even by its numerical strength, but by the skill, energy, and devotedness which animate its soldiery. In these points the Dissenters may claim preeminence, as appears from a comparison of missionary and educational exertions. During the year 1828-9, the Church of England party raised, for missionary purposes, as under: The Protestant Dissenters alone, during the same period, contributed the following sums: Thus it appears, that although the numerical strength of the Church of Englandists exceeds that of the Protestant Dissenters, they do not contribute so much by £22,481 per annum, towards the cause of evangelizing the world, as the non-conformists. For the mental improvement of their countrymen, the Protestant Dissenters are not less strenuous in their exertions; and on the subject of education, notwithstanding the superior advantages of the Establishment party, they likewise bear the palm. The National School Society educates · Children. 704,730 720,717* In exhibiting the exertions of the two great parties of Conformists and Dissenters, we have taken no notice of what is done by the Catholics, * Church Establishment founded in Error, p. 92. G |