exhibit the real difficulties of the sub- harmless in these times, and under ject; lessen the surprise and anger these circumstances. We must be which are apt to be excited by opposition; and by these means, promote that forgiving one another, and forbearing one another, which are so powerfully recommended by the words of my text.

this silent antiquation of doctrines,Another canon of religious charity this real improvement, which the parties is to revise, at long intervals, the bad themselves are too wise not to feel, opinions we have been compelled, or though not wise enough to own, must, rather our forefathers have been com- I am afraid, be generally conceded to pelled, to form of other Christian sects; human infirmity. They are indulgences to see whether the different bias of the not unnecessary to many sects of Chrisage, the more general diffusion of in- tians. The more generous method telligence, do not render those tenets would be to admit error where error less pernicious: that which might prove exists, to say these were the tenets and a very great evil under other circum-interpretations of dark and ignorant stances, and in other times, may, per- ages; wider inquiry, fresh discussion, haps, however weak and erroneous, be superior intelligence have convinced

us we are wrong; we will act in future if you wish to forbear and to forgive,

upon better and wiser principles. This is what men do in laws, arts, and sciences; and happy for them would it be if they used the same modest docility in the highest of all concerns. But it is, I fear, more than experience will allow us to expect; and therefore the kindest and most charitable method is to allow religious sects silently to improve without reminding them of, and taunting them with, the improvement; without bringing them to the humiliation of formal disavowal, or the still more pernicious practice of defending what they know to be indefensible. The triumphs which proceed from the neglect of these principles are not (what they pretend to be) the triumphs of religion, but the triumphs of personal vanity. The object is not to extinguish dangerous error with as little pain and degradation as possible to him who has fallen into the error: but the object is to exalt ourselves, and to depreciate our theological opponents, as much as possible, at any expense to God's service, and to the real interests of truth and religion.

it will then occur to you that you should seek the true opinions of any sect from those only who are approved of, and reverenced by that sect; to whose authority that sect defer, and by whose arguments they consider their tenets to be properly defended. This may not suit your purpose if you are combating for victory; but it is your duty if you are combating for truth; it is the safe, honest, and splendid conduct of him, who never writes nor speaks on religious subjects, but that he may diffuse the real blessings of religion among his fellow-creatures, and restrain the bitterness of controversy by the feelings of Christian charity and forbearance.

Let us also ask ourselves, when we are sitting in severe judgment upon the faults, follies, and errors of other Christian sects, whether it be not barely possible that we have fallen into some mistakes and misrepresentations? Let us ask ourselves, honestly and fairly, whether we are wholly exempt from prejudice, from pride, from obstinate adhesion to what candour calls upon us to alter, and to yield? Are there no violent and mistaken members of our own community, by whose conduct we should be loth to be guided, -by whose tenets we should not choose our faith should be judged? Has time, that improves all, found nothing in us to change for the better? Amid all the manifold divisions of the Christian world, are we the only Christians who, without having anything to learn from the knowledge and civilisation of the last three centuries, have started up, without infancy, and without error, into consummate wisdom and spotless perfection?

There is another practice not less common than this, and equally uncharitable; and that is, to represent the opinions of the most violent and eager persons who can be met with, as the common and received opinions of the whole sect. There are, in every denomination of Christians, individuals, by whose opinion or by whose conduct the great body would very reluctantly be judged. Some men aim at attracting notice by singularity; some are deficient in temper; some in learning; some push every principle to the extreme; distort, overstate, pervert; fill every one to whom their cause is dear with concern To listen to enemies as well as friends that it should have been committed to is a rule which not only increases sense such rash and intemperate advocates. in common life, but is highly favourable If you wish to gain a victory over your to the increase of religious candour. antagonists, these are the men whose You find that you are not so free from writings you should study, whose faults as your friends suppose, nor so opinions you should dwell on, and full of faults as your enemies suppose. should carefully bring forward to You begin to think it not impossible notice; but if you wish, as the elect of that you may be as unjust to others as God, to put on kindness and humble- they are to you; and that the wisest ss, meekness, and long-suffering,—and most Christian scheme is that of

mutual indulgence; that it is better to put on, as the elect of God, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.

surely submit to some little softness and relaxation; honest difference of opinion cannot fall for such entire separation and complete antipathy; such zeal as this, if it be zeal, and not something worse, is not surely zeal according to discretion.

Some men cannot understand how they are to be zealous if they are candid in religious matters; how the energy, The arguments, then, which I have necessary for the one virtue, is com- adduced in support of the great principatible with the calmness which the ples of religious charity are, that vioother requires. But remember that lence upon such subjects is rarely or the Scriptures carefully distinguish be- ever found to be useful; but generally tween laudable zeal and indiscreet zeal; to produce effects opposite to those that the apostles and epistolary writers which are intended. I have observed knew they had as much to fear from that religious sects are not to be judged the over-excitement of some men, from the representations of their ene as from the supineness of others; and mies? but that they are to be heard in nothing have they laboured more for themselves, in the pleadings of than in preventing religion from arm- their best writers, not in the represening human passions, instead of allaying tations of those whose intemperate zeal them, and rendering those principles a is a misfortune to the sect to which source of mutual jealousy and hatred they belong. If you will study the which were intended for universal principles of your religious opponents, peace. I admit that indifference some-you will often find your contempt and times puts on the appearance of can- hatred lessened in proportion as you dour; but though there is a counterfeit, are better acquainted with what you desyet there is a reality; and the imitation proves the value of the original, because men only attempt to multiply the appearances of useful and important things. The object is to be at the same time pious to God and charitable to man; to render your own faith as pure and perfect as possible, not only without hatred of those who differ from you, but with a constant recollection that it is possible, in spite of thought and study, that you may have been mistaken,- that other sects may be right,—and that a zeal in his service, which God does not want, is a very bad excuse for those bad passions which his sacred word condemns.

Lastly, I would suggest that many differences between sects are of less importance than the furious zeal of many men would make them. Are the tenets of any sect of such a description that we believe they will be saved under the Christian faith? Do they fulfil the common duties of life? Do they respect property? Are they obedient to the laws? Do they speak the truth? If all these things be right, the violence of hostility may

pise. Many religious opinions, which are purely speculative, are without the limits of human interference. In the numerous sects of Christianity, interpreting our religion in very opposite manners, all cannot be right. Imitate the forbearance and long-suffering of God, who throws the mantle of his mercy over all, and who will probably save, on the last day, the piously right and the piously wrong, seeking Jesus in humbleness of mind. Do not drive religious sects to the disgrace (or to what they foolishly think the disgrace) of formally disavowing tenets they once professed, but concede something to human weakness; and when the tenet is virtually given up, treat it as if it were actually given up; and always consider it to be very possible that you yourself may have made mistakes, and fallen into erroneous opinions, as well as any other sect to which you are opposed. If you put on these dispositions, and this tenor of mind, you cannot be guilty of any religious fault, take what part you will in the religious disputes which appear to be coming on the world. If you choose to perpetuate the restrictions

priated to that purpose. The Bishops who consented to this have then made a great sacrifice :-true, but they have taken more out of our pockets than they have disbursed from their own. Where then is the sacrifice? They must either give back the patronage or the martyrdom: if they choose to be martyrs - - which I hope they will do - let them give us back our patronage: if they prefer the patronage, they must not talk of being martyrs-they cannot

enjoy precisely the same proportion of patronage as it now does, and each member of every other Cathedral will have precisely the same means of promoting men of merit or men of his own family, as is now possessed; while less than half of these advantages will remain to St. Paul's. Thirdly, if the Bishop of London were to wait (as all the other Bishops by this arrangement must wait) till the present patrons die off, the injustice would be to the future body; but by this scheme, every pre-effect this double sensuality and com-' sent incumbent of St. Paul's is instantly bine the sweet flavour of rapine with deprived of eight fifteenths of his pa- the aromatic odour of sanctity. tronage; while every other member of every other Cathedral (as far as patronage is concerned) remains precisely in the same state in which he was before. Why this blow is levelled against St. Paul's I cannot conceive; still less can I imagine why the Bishop of London is not to wait, as all other Bishops are forced to wait, for the death of the present Patrons. There is a reason, indeed, for not waiting, by which (had I to do with a person of less elevated character than the Bishop of London) I would endeavour to explain this precipitate seizure of patronage and that is, that the livings assigned to him in this remarkable scheme are all very valuable, and the incumbents all very old. But I shall pass over this scheme as a mere supposition, invented to bring the Commission into disrepute, a scheme to which it is utterly impossible the Commissioners should ever affix their names.

I should have thought, if the love of what is just had not excited the Commissioner-Bishops, that the ridicule of men voting such comfortable things to themselves as the Prebendal patronage, would have alarmed them; but they want to sacrifice with other men's hecatombs, and to enjoy, at the same time, the character of great disinterestedness, and the luxury of unjust spoliation. It was thought necessary to make a fund; and the Prebends in the gift of the Bishops were appro

The Bishops have, however, secured for themselves all the Livings which were in the separate gifts of Prebendaries and Deans, and they have received from the

We are told, if you agitate these questions among yourselves, you will have the democratic Philistines come down upon you, and sweep you all away together. Be it so; I am quite ready to be swept away when the time comes. Everybody has their favourite death: some delight in apoplexy, and others prefer marasmus. I would infinitely rather be crushed by democrats, than, under the plea of the public good, be mildly and blandly absorbed by Bishops.

I met the other day, in an old Dutch Chronicle, with a passage so apposite to this subject, that, though it is somewhat too light for the occasion, I cannot abstain from quoting it. There was a great meeting of all the Clergy at Dordrecht, and the Chronicler thus describes it, which I give in the language of the translation: -" And there was great store of Bishops in the town, in their robes goodly to behold, and all the great men of the State were there, and folks poured in in boats on the Meuse, the Merve, the Rhine, and the Linge, coming from the Isle of Beverlandt and Isselmond, and from all quarters in the Bailiwick of Dort; Arminians and Gomarists, with the friends of John Barneveldt and of Hugh Grote. And before my Lords the Bishops, Simon of Gloucester, who was a Bishop in those parts, disputed patronage; why or wherefore is known only Crown a very large contribution of valuable to the unfathomable wisdom of Ministers. The glory of martyrdom can be confined only at best to the Bishops of the old Cathedrals, for there are scarcely any separate Prebends in the new Cathedrals.

have voted to themselves out of the patronage of the Cathedrals, they will have all that never-ending patronage which is to proceed from the working of the Commission, and the endowments bestowed upon different livings. So much for episcopal sacrifices!

with Vorstius and Leoline the Monk, | of the window like the Bishops; and and many texts of Scripture were ban- when the Count came to hear of it, he died to and fro; and when this was said it was a pleasant conceit, and that done, and many propositions made, the Bishops were right cunning men, and and it waxed towards twelve of the had ding'd the Canons well.” clock, my Lords the Bishops prepared When I talk of sacrifices, I mean the to set them down to a fair repast, in sacrifices of the Bishop-Commissioners, which was great store of good things for we are given to understand that the and among the rest a roasted pea- great mass of Bishops were never concock, having in lieu of a tail the arms sulted at all about these proceedings; and banners of the Archbishop, which that they are contrary to everything was a goodly sight to all who favoured which consultations at Lambeth, prethe Church-and then the Archbishop vious to the Commission, had led them would say a grace, as was seemly to to expect; and that they are totally do, he being a very holy man; but ere disapproved of by them. The volunhe had finished, a great mob of towns-tary sacrifice, then (for it is no sacripeople and folks from the country fice if it be not voluntary), is in the who were gathered under the win- Bishop-Commissioners only; and bedow, cried out, Bread! bread! for there sides the indemnification which they was a great famine, and wheat had risen to three times the ordinary price of the sleich*; and when they had done crying Bread! bread! they called out No Bishops!-and began to cast up stones at the windows. Whereat my Lords the Bishops were in a great fright, and cast their dinner out of the window to appease the mob, and so the men of that town were well pleased, and did devour the meats with a great appetite; and then you might have seen my Lords standing with empty plates, and looking wistfully at each other, till Simon of Gloucester, he who disputed with Leoline the Monk, stood up among them and said, Good my Lords, is it your pleasure to stand here fasting, and that those who count lower in the Church than you do should feast and fluster? Let us order to us the dinner of the Deans and Canons, which is making ready for them in the chamber below.' And this speech of Simon of Gloucester pleased the Bishops much; and so they sent for the host, one William of Ypres, and told him it was for the public good, and he, much fearing the Bishops, brought them the dinner of the Deans and Canons; and so the Deans and Canons went away without dinner, and were pelted by the men of the town, because they had not put any meat out

A measure in the Bailiwick of Dort, containing two gallons one pint English dry measure.

And who does not see the end and meaning of all this? The Lay Com. missioners, who are members of the Government, cannot and will not attend

the Archbishops of York and Canterbury are quiet and amiable men, going fast down in the vale of lifesome of the members of the Commission are expletives-some must be absent in their dioceses - the Bishop of London is passionately fond of labour, has certainly no aversion to power, is of quick temper, great ability, thoroughly versant in ecclesiastical law, and always in London. He will become the Commission, and when the Church of England is mentioned, it will only mean Charles James of London, who will enjoy a greater power than has ever been possessed by any Churchman since the days of Laud, and will become the Church of England here upon earth. As for the Commission itself, there is scarcely any power which is not given to it. They may call for every paper in the world, and every human creature who possesses it, and do what they like contend with such a body; and most to one or the other. It is hopeless to painful to think that it has been esta