profess themselves members. That ignorant people should be carried away with so plausable an idea, can be no matter of surprise; they have been, and always will be, imposed upon by sounds. But that men of reading and education should adopt it, affords one proof among many, that experience does not always furnish wisdom.et bit, „Zábristes

It must be confessed, indeed, that the agesin which we live, though a reading, is certainly not a learned, age. Light publications of the day, cal culated for the purpose of present entertainment, and superficial information, are preferred to the scientific pages of the learned, though less amusing, writer, which require abstraction of thought and intenseness of application to make them yield fruit to the reader. Advantage has been industriously taken of this general taste for superficial reading, to undermine those fundamental principles of government, both in Church and state, which constituted, in better times, a standard for judg ment in these matters; by means of those plausible theories and specious arguments, which, by un hinging and unsettling the human mind, are calcu lated to prepare it for every change.

i

Against such men and their writings it was never perhaps more necessary to be on our guard than in these days; when the right of private judgment and the freedom of enquiry (principles in them. selves of unquestionable and excellent use, when properly employed) have been carried to such an extent, as in a manner to set at nought all autho rity, under the plausible pretence of delivering mankind from established prejudices.

:

To form a judgment, indeed, from the systems of some modern speculatists, which manifest a supercilious inattention to the sober deductions of all who have gone before them, in the walks either of religious or political knowledge, we should conclude that we were newly dropt into a world of yesterday, and had all our experience to learn; or that our forefathers had been sleeping through ignorances and insensibility, or at best had been gropingh their way by a glimmering taper, which had afforded but light sufficient to make their darkness visible; and that we, their more favoured sons, were just opening our eyes to that dawn of enlightened reason, which our Creator in his wisdom had thought fit to reserve for the more full illumination of the present day.

Is What people are taught to despise, they will not long be solicitous to preserve. Upon this principle, it may be a subject worthy the consideration of those who really mean well to our establishment, whether this imaginary distinction between the Church of Christ and Church of England, now propagating among us, be not designed, by the enemies of the latter, as an introductory step to its wished-for dissolution.co

ร

Wises and good men, in discerning the signs of the times, will learn from them, we trust, a seasonable lesson of prudence and cautional olursa Should it, however, be the will of that wise Being who directeth all things, (as from the complexion of the times we are occasionally led to fear may be the case) that this nation should learn a second lesson in that licentious school, in which it might

be thought that it had remained a length of time sufficient to have received a finished education; it may at least be hoped that the clergy will not be 'brought in as accessary to the judgment.

Be it remembered, that the most common way of wounding the Church has been through the sides of its clergy. This method was practised with success, when the Church of this country possessed a most pious and able ministry. We are not, therefore, to be surprised that it should be attempted in the present day.

But although no argument drawn from the con'duct of individuals ought in equity to bear against the body to which they belong; yet when a preju dice once takes possession of the human mind, it is not always in the power of reason to confine it to the precise object that originally gave rise to it. This consideration should make the clergy, of all men, most circumspect in their conduct; because, as the world will judge, it is in their power to do the greatest injury to the cause of which they ought to be the most effectual supporters.

men;

We are told, that "the time is fast approaching, when Christianity will be almost as openly disavowed in the language, as in fact it is already supposed to have disappeared from the conduct of when infidelity will be held to be the neces sary appendage of a man of fashion; and to believe will be deemed the indication of a feeble mind, and a contracted understanding." Should such, alas! be the actual condition of this country, the history of the Christian Church will show what its future

** Wilberforce, p. 375.

condition must be. In such case, with lamenting fromage badł to jesti, gitanovil nå Jeremy, we may weep over the fallen the fallen" city become "as a widow; she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her. The ways of Zion de mo mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. "Her adversaries are the chief; her enemies les prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions." That God, who spared not the countries where his Church was originally planted, but in consequence of their corruption suffered the light of sequence of their suffered the light of his truth to depart from them, will most assuredly not spare this country under similar circumstances. When the purpose for which the Church has been established is not answered, it will not long be suffered to mock the design of its Divine Founder. In the prophetic language, when the vine-yard which God has enclosed shall cease to be duly cultivated; and the vine be suffered to take its wild and natural growth; the hedge by which it had been separated from the waste will be pulled down; and the boar out of the wood, and the wild beast of the field, be permitted to devour it. Some anti-Christian power, intent upon nothing but plunder and destruction, or a domestic enemy having the same object in view, will sooner or later he let loose up toliqon keno, sila a Church when this degenerate condition, and bec of executing upon her the vengeance due to her xecuting come the instrument

VOL. I.

* Lam. of Jer. i. 1, &c.

EE

+ Ps. lxxx.

crimes. May God give the people of this nation such a sight of their danger, as may tend effectually to guard them against it!

Indisposed, as I think I am, to superstition and enthusiasm, the present events of Europe are nevertheless of so awful and alarming a kind, as to affect me with the most serious and interesting concern. Upon the authority of sacred writ we are assured, that the time must come when "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ."* That Being who declareth "the end from the beginning; "+ before whom all nations are as nothing, yea, less than nothing; will make human policy subservient to the accomplishment of his wise purposes. What important page in the great history of the world may now be turning over, it is not for us to determine. As Christians, we look with reverence to the issue of the Divine councils, whatever it may be; knowing that all things will work together for good to those who have the Lord for their God. At the same time we should want the feelings of men, did we not tremble at the threatening aspect of that black cloud, which has been long pouring forth sweeping destruction upon the nations around us.

In such a critical season, the office of the priest hood becomes more than ever an office of dignified importance. In the character of atoning Aaron, with incense in his hand, the priest is called upon to stand as it were between the dead and the living; and, if it may be, to stay the plague, the