tance and beneficial influence of the established church.* The maintenance and support of such an establishment is a most serious duty.

We address not members of other denominations. We fully admit that there are very many truly pious and conscientious Dissenters; we rejoice at the good doing among them, and by them; we pray that they may receive yet more abundantly the gifts of the Holy Spirit ; and we admire and would reciprocally adopt the words of one of their own devoted ministers--“ I feel a most sincere and encouraging joy in the growing number and holy eminence of those among you whom the world stigmatizes, and it is my heart's desire and prayer, that whatever may be unscriptural in all established and other churches, may not be brushed off by rude hands, or broken away by outward violence, but detected, to the conviction of upright hearts, by the light and grace of the Lord Jesus in his word, and purged away by the sweet and omnipotent influences of the Holy Spirit."

We are not now, however, speaking to Christians in general: nor do we address those members of the

The Author has not attempted to enter at large into the subject. Those who wish for further information will find it in Jewell's Works, especially his Apology and the Defences of it; Strype's Memorials, Annals, and Lives of the Reformers; Whitgift's Answer and Defence against Cartwright; Fulke's and Bilson's Treatises, Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity; the writings of Bishops Hall, Hopkins, and Beveridge; of Stillingfleet, John Rogers, Maddox, Warren, Comber, Beune t, Nicholls, and many others. The Tracts of the Bristol Church of England Tract Society, Wilks's Correlative Claims, The Scholar Armed, a Tract by Robinson, entitled, A Serious Call, &c. and a Pamphlet entitled, The Evil of Separation from the Church of England, will be found useful to those who cannot procure more scarce or expensive works. In Milner's Church History, there are many valuable remarks on this subject. See especially vol. ii, ch. 17.

church who merely are such from state policy: nor those in authority, and with church patronage, who merely consult their family interests, and appoint unfit, wholly unfit men, because they happen to be related to them: nor those who being themselves prejudiced against the real principles of the established church, harass every minister who holds them, and throw all their influence and patronage towards the appointment of men of a worldly spirit, and thus bring all sorts of obloquy and reproach against the church. Mr. Yates, in his able pamphlet, "The Church in Danger," has shewn the practical wisdom of appointing pious, indefatigable, and exemplary ministers, in the case of two churches in London, a few years back almost empty, and both of them since attended by crowded congregations. He says, "The appointment of these two Rectors to the situations for which they have approved themselves so appropriately qualified, has more augmented the number of advocates, and more contributed to the support of the church of England, than all the controversies and defences of its doctrines, or all the legislative enforcements of its discipline that have appeared during the last half century." How prejudicial to the real prosperity of the church is a contrary course! The instances have not been few in which, when a faithful minister has died, or has perhaps even been driven away, his place is immediately supplied by one of another spirit, and dissenting chapels have forthwith been erected and filled; and a lasting breach and division made: made primarily by this course of proceeding in those who profess to be wise and intelli

• See Chalmers' valuable Essay on Church Patronage,

gent members of the church of England! What extended evil such conduct produces! what wide-spreading and lasting injury is done to the establishment! and what a tremendous responsibility rests on such persous!

But WE ADDRESS PIOUS AND ENLIGHTENED CHURCHMEN, in private stations, on points which tend to weaken the influence and extent of that establishment, which has been such a blessing to the country, and we exhort them so to act as TO MAINTAIN THIS BLESSING, and hand it down unimpaired to their children and their children's children.

The great difficulty with hearers from the beginning, has been their liking or disliking of individuals, their partialities for one and against another. Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ, was the complaint of an Apostle, which he strongly repels-Is Christ divided? was Paui crucified for you? and shews them that all mere men are nothing but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. So it is now. If their own minister pleases the members of a congregation, they are often so partial and attached to him, as to hear no one else with patience. If they entertain a dislike to him, they cherish it, and manifest it far too strongly. If any new preacher of peculiar talent comes, there are those who are far too eager to run after him;

The late Mr. Robinson in his Serions Call, observed, "those professing godliness have forgotten what they owe to their faithful pastors, and no longer yield them what is their dueattention, reverence, and attachment. The relation which formery subsisted between the parochial minister and the people of his charge and which is calculated to promote the interests

and others are, to a lamentable degree, wanderers, roving from place to place.

To such, as Christians, we say-Beware of leaning on an arm of flesh, of trusting in man, or of glorying in man. To such, as members of the established church, we say - It is the very essence of the church of England to commit the charge of a certain district to a certain minister: he to look after it, and the people within it to look up to him. We have seen the benefits of the church, and approve of its constitution; but no benefits can be obtained without some sacrifice of private inclination; and are we not acting in the spirit of those who separate from it, when we go where we please, and choose our own minister, without reference to the appointments of that church? Is not in this Waty the system of the church of England breaking down among us, and that of the Dissenters extensively superseding it, even within the church? Do parishioners in large towns in general feel any connection with their minister, the more for his being their parochial pastor? Many certainly by their conduct manifest that they do not,

of solid piety, is now nearly dissolved through the wildness of insubordination, which has broken loose among us. A contempt is shewn for the sacred function, and for the most exemplary characters invested with it. In many cases at least, no eminence of ability, no fidelity or diligence, no purity of doctrine, or holiness of life in the Parish Priest have been sufficient to secure to him the affections, even of the more serious part of his congregation; but they have departed from him in multitudes, on the appearance of a strange teacher, whose endeavours, as it afterwards appeared, were to unsettle and divide. Is this to obey the Apostolical directions? 1 Thess. v, 12, 13; Heb. xiii, 17. O beware that you do not weaken the hands, and grieve the hearts of those whom God is pleased to own in the work of the ministry, and who have a just claim on you for your firm support, and unremitted co-operation."

and thus, with them, all those good sentiments which used formerly to be of so much and such valuable influence, of the obligation to attend the parish church, are rapidly passing away. We may justly allow that these sentiments were carried by some to an extreme, so as to militate against some of the first principles of the reformation; but are we not now in dauger on quite the other side?

The author feels the delicacy and difficulty of the subject. The Scriptures very much insist on the duty of guarding against false teachers; we need only refer to the following passages-Deut. xiii,1-3; Isa.ix,15,16; Jer.xiv, 14-16; Ezek.iii,16-22; Micah iii, 5-7 ;Matt.vii, 15, 24; xxiii, 4,5; xxiv, 25; 2 Pet. ii, 1–3; 1 John iv, 1. to prove this. With so many directions and cautions on this point, and with the affecting warning, that iƒ the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the pit; and with the important fact that we owe the reformation to an appeal from false teachers to the word of God; we dare not but insist on and press the duty of every Christian trying the doctrine which he hears, by the written word, and being anxious to hear pure and scriptural doctrine. Christians have certainly a right of private judgment, and are charged to take heed what they hear. Mark iv, 24. While they are told, Despise not prophecyings, they are also told, Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. 1 Thess. v, 21, 22. They are exhorted, Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John iv, 1. "This shews," says Mr. Scott, "that Christians who are well acquainted with the Scriptures, may, in humble dependance on divine teaching, know for themselves who it is that preaches