mystery or "foolishness:" nor is there any thing in the education or habits of the clergy, to lead us to suppose that they have necessarily clearer or more just notions upon this subject. There is, however, another large and more truly respectable class, who add to a tolerably correct knowledge of the doctrines of the Articles and Homilies, a faithful discharge of their professional duties, and it is to persons of this description we allude. Their education and habits have removed them entirely, perhaps, from intercourse with intelligent Dissenters; and having neither motive nor inclination to examine their principles, it should create no wonder if they do not understand them. They have been probably taught, at school or at college, to consider the great rebellion,' by which the blessed martyr Charles I. was dethroned, as the result of a fanatical combination of sectaries, leagued, against Church and State; and the old fable of the Wolf and the Lamb still continues in force with respect to the supposed descendants of the authors of those troubles. Neale's History of the Puritans, is a book not much studied in Universities; and we question whether the Nonconformist's Memorial is to be found in a College library. It might be supposed, that afterwards, on their entering upon life, the numbers of the Dissenters, the high literary celebrity of some of their Ministers, and the incontestable efficacy of their preaching, might, even as a subject of political economy, engage their impartial attention to the subject, and perhaps conciliate their respect for so large a class of their fellow subjects. But before this time arrives, the mind has provided itself with opinions which it does not care to have disturbed, and reposing on the bosom of authority, it contentedly devolves its doubts and scruples on those who, it is supposed, assuredly know best. The avenues of information, too, become closed by the formation of habits and connexions, no less than by the growth of prejudice; and the only tidings which reach the incumbent faculty, come in the shape of indefinite alarm.

So completely does this want of information prevail, respecting the subdivisions of the religious world, the distinguishing tenets of different sects, and their relative numbers, that we have good reason for believing, that many of the more pious among the clergy, are really impressed with the persuasion that the greater part of the Dissenters secede from the Church on account of a difference of doctrine, and that Socinians and Antinomians constitute by far the most numerous classes. They have no idea of the accordance of sentiment and purity of doctrine, in all essential respects, which characterize the great body of what are termed Orthodox Dissenters, and that even the doctrines of Calvinism, as held and

preached by their acknowledged Ministers, are divested of those systematic and technical peculiarities, by which their adaptation to the ends of preaching, is frequently estimated. We feel persuaded, that if many of this respectable class would exercise half only of the curiosity and half of the diligence of investigation, which they bestow upon the internal policy and opinions of foreign nations, in ascertaining the real dispositions, sentiments, and beneficial exertions of the Dissenters at large, not only would their peace of mind be promoted by the dissipation of a thousand shadowy apprehensions, but they would feel a benevolent pleasure in discovering how much good is going forward by means of a multitudinous agency, whose exertions had not been taken into account in their philanthropic calculations. They would doubtless rejoice to hear, that those who did not follow in their company, were efficiently employed in casting out devils in the name of their master; and they would learn to think that whosoever was not against them, might be considered as on their part.

The only evil which we can imagine to arise from this juster appreciation of the character and objects of the sectaries, would be, that the exigences of the occasion' being diminished, the clergy of the diocese of London, to go no further, might be in danger of relapsing into negligence, as the strongest motive for exertion urged upon them by Episcopal authority, would be proportionably weakened.

One circumstance which may have led to the prevailing supposition of the general heterodoxy of modern Dissenters, is, that the clergy, for want of better information, have been apt to attach the character of some one popular, perhaps notorious character, to a whole body or an imagined sect. Any man that preaches without the walls of a Church, is registered in the Bishop's books as a Dissenter, and takes out his license accordingly. Thus Huntingdon, and Tozer, and every miserable, self-deluded fanatic, (for the term has its appropriate meaning,) may be conveniently termed Dissenting teachers; and their followers, Dissenters of course, though they may have been but yesterday the regular attendants of a parish Church, are arrayed into a new army of malignant confederacy against the Church. On the other hand, the recent demonstrations of proselyting zeal and literary industry, which have been manifested on the part of the Unitarians, who lose no opportunity of attracting publicity, and of giving a specious importance to their proceedings, have alarmed many well meaning persons, for the safety of all pious believers unprotected by the fence of an Establishment. This idea of the predominance of Socinian tenets, has, we believe, received accidental countenance from a

circumstance to which we hope we shall be excused for adverting.. It is with no disrespect for the individual alluded to, that we notice the fact, that one of the leading representatives of the Dissenters in Parliament is generally supposed to have embraced the Unitarian system. In the mean while, the silent diligence of thousands of pious labourers in the vineyard of God, among the Calvinistic Non-conformists, unregistered in the gazettes of literary or political celebrity, undiplomatized, unbeneficed, unknown but in the narrow circle of their duties, form no item in the calculations of the Ecclesiastical economist: or the populous village, which is the scene of their unambitious exertions, shall be designated, ex cathedra, as a strong hold abandoned to the occupation ' of the enemy.'

One remark, however, we would wish, if possible, to convey to the right reverend Author of the Charge before us: yet as it is not likely, without the favourable interposition of Dean, or private Secretary, these pages will ever attract his attention, we must content ourselves with urging it in the form of general admonition. Before either lords or gentlemen think themselves authorized to charge on their fellow citizens and fellow countrymen who may dissent from the Established Church, attempts tending to the subversion of that Church, or any political project, as their ultimate aim, theywill do well to produce some document, something more substantial than supposed tendencies, or suspected views, as a foundation for their accusation. If the charge does not originate in a degree of ignorance scarcely excusable in any situation, it must arise from the most unchristian and dishonest party spirit. Do these gentlemen wish for information? There are, surely, publications enough, from which to extract their evidence. Of one periodical publication alone supported by one particular denomination of Dissenters, (for such the Wesleyan Methodists must be termed), there are regularly sold between 20 and 30,000 copies; of another monthly publication decidedly supported by the Dissenting ininterest,' above 20,000; and of a third, more recently established, upwards of 5,000. Now these are, it must be con fessed, formidable organs of sedition and heresy, and they cannot fail to be employed as a means of disseminating sentiments of malignant hostility against the Episcopal Church. The ultimate views, the leading objects of the sectaries, may doubtless be discovered in the pages of these works. They have been heretofore only supposed to be the repositories of fanatical error and impiety. We do not recollect that either the Barrister, or the Edinburgh Reviewer of Ingram on MethoVOL. III, N. S. 3 P

dism, brought any other charge against them;-but surely the seeds of malignant hostility must, if any where, be apparent in publications of so miscellaneous a character. Symptoms of the alleged confederacy among the different parties, also, who in the prosecution of their hostility, forget their attachment to a particular creed,' must be discernible on collating their contents. But if the investigation should, strange to say, terminate in no such discoveries, their accusers will have no resource, we fear, but to take refuge with the curate of St. John's, Hackney, in latent tendencies and historical parallels, and these must furnish the Demonstration!

That in the avowed opinion of many whom we should class among the most rational and sober Dissenters, the Episcopal hierarchy of the Church of England is an Anti Christian institute, which will eventually share in the downfall of the mystical Babylon, we do not wish to deny or to conceal but to found upon this a suspicion of any political design or any personal feelings of hostility against the Church, with the clergy and members of which they are perhaps living on terms of the most affectionate intimacy, would be no less absurd than injurious. The only weapon they would ever raise against that Church is the sword by which Luther conquered,—the Bible, and if this can overturn the Church, it is not doubtful whether it ought to stand. But the event they leave, without anxiety, in the counsels of that Allwise Providence, who will choose, in the appointed time, his own instruments, and be his own Interpreter.

One thing, in conclusion, is we think, deducible from the ignorance and misrepresentation which so generally prevail with regard to the principles of Nonconformity, and of religious liberty;-that it is the bounden duty of all who call themselves Dissenters, and who feel the value of privileges which their fathers died to secure, to take every proper occasion, without hostility but without disguise, of making these principles understood, and to separate from all party or political motives, the firm but courteous maintenance of their religious rights. Integrity abhors all compromise: Charity requires none, The question of Dissent is no speculative, no unimportant subject. The time has been, (such a time may again occur,) when Dissenting Colleges and Dissenting Pulpits were the only depositaries of the doctrines of the Reto mation, of the Church of England herself. No conviction is more firmly impressed on our minds than that, in this country, Dissenters are the best security of the constitution itself, and the most effective safeguard of the national prosperity,

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ÅRT. XIV. SELECT LITERARY INFORMATION.

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