doctrines must expect to be aspersed; we are in the way of their easy and full success; no wonder is it, therefore, that all possible methods to silence us should be adopted. We feel that this is not a crisis in which we should be lukewarm; that if we have voluntarily undertaken the defence of our faith, no policy should deter us from boldly fulfilling our given pledges. We are aware that the majority of the Church Reviews support the Tracts; our opposition thus naturally points us out as those whose "mouths must be stopped." We fix our stand on the Liturgy, the Articles, and the Homilies; our opponents ramify into private writings, which we only regard as disclosing the sentiments of private men, not as things obligatory upon us. Private opinion is not that to which we have subscribed; and if private opinion be opposed to that to which we have subscribed, we reject it. Thus have we acted; thus should we have acted, as members of that good old school, which for years has been. the glory of the land. The many divisions which prevail among us, expose us to our enemies, and weaken our defences, and the struggle for preeminence in each produces a worldly spirit, which is in utter contradiction to the faith professed. On the one hand are those who would enforce a dry morality or halfstarved Theology, who would represent our duty as consisting in a routine of ordinances, facts, and battological (Matt. vi. 7) invocations of Saints, and inculcating the necessity of reserve in disclosing religious doctrines; on the other, those who would either entirely discard or wofully mutilate the liturgical forms. in use among us, and sublimate the plainest words of Scripture to a hidden and scriptural sense, which exists only in their own effervescing imaginations. Each resorts to the press; not contented with privately indulging its peculiar sentiments, each party labours strenuously to make proselytes; and in its zeal evinces more of party-spirit than of unobtrusive piety. The one has the Tracts, and continually issues publications in support of its system the other not only acts in the same manner, but has forced its way into the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and exerts itself to reject the good books and to introduce those which are in accordance with its views. Is it then extraordinary that the Church should be debilitated in its energies? -that Dissenters should take advantage of our internal schisms? -that Atheists and Infidels should confederate with our enemies to raze us even with the ground? If our Clergy were united, none would dare to point at us the finger of scorn; but as long as the part of hirelings instead of shepherds is actedas long as the furtherance of internal sects, instead of the glory of the Establishment, is sought-it must be expected that wolves will invade the fold, and that the flock will be torn or dispersed.

:

The consequences of these things have likewise been seen in certain legislative enactments, and in others darkly contemplated. The temple of God was of old marked by the spoiler, and its riches and sacred things were confiscated for profane use or for political emergencies; just so is it now. But such desecration of things destined for holy uses-such a sacrilegious spoliation no legislative body would have dared to contemplate, if the Clergy had been united and stood compact in their strength, and not permitted schismatic vanity to loosen the bars of those gates which God had made fast. Bills, such as some which have been carried, and some which are proposed, would not have been tolerated, even as far as the preamble, and none would have presumed to have framed them, if the laxity occasioned by our internal divisions had not exposed us to ridicule from without, and given hope and energy to those who turn religion to mockery. But now, as soon as one point has been gained, another has been attempted: the spirit of the Churchdestroyers is unwearied, and acquires strength from success. To reduce the income of the Clergy, to impose on them additional labour, to confiscate cathedral property, is not sufficient: the Church itself must be rooted out of the land, and the uneducated and vulgar brawler must be legally sanctioned in vomiting his nonsense on the public. We only regret that the Honourable Members, particularly Lord John, do not admit this fraternity within the walls of St. Stephen's for mutual edification.

The last blow levelled at the Church has been the scheme of National Education. That this is more especially designed to aid the cause of Popery, to give facilities to the Popish priests, to seduce the children of Protestants from their faith, to circulate the Popish version of the Scriptures, and make the Ministers of parishes nonentities, is too manifest to require an elaborate proof. Here the Archbishop and the Clergy have vigorously acted, and presented a front which alarmed the puny Ministers of the Crown. But the evil is still imminent: the bill may be modified, but its modifications will be only disguises; its venom will not be extracted, its deleterious composition will not be corrected. We must not only watch, but oppose it: we must not only build up what our party spirit has pulled down, but, like those who erected the walls of Jerusalem, gird on our armour, quit ourselves like men, and be strong.

It is very obvious that either this bill may be rendered of no effect by our prudence, or that it will violate the principles of the constitution, and thus, even though it should be made a law, will be on higher grounds illegal. For unless it takes away the right of parents over children, which is the law of God and

nature, a remedy is apparent; but if it presumes to infringe that right, that law both natural and Divine, it will not only exceed the powers of any legislature, but will certainly encounter the resistance of physical strength. This right, therefore, being inalienable, sacredly invested in parentage, our course is plain.

Where the inducements are similar, parents would prefer the instruction of their children in their own faith, to one in a faith diametrically opposite; and if the Church provides schools all over the country, and those schools be properly supported and endowed, the rising generation may yet be saved from the effects of this Ministerial project. Since, then, funds have, with a remarkable facility, been collected for various societies, and 90,000l. per ann. for the Bible Society alone-since immense sums have been expended on foreign missions, assuredly the true friends to the Church, and to the Protestant cause in general, should make these suggested schools the first consideration, and delay not to raise munificent contributions for their establishment and support. If so much be expended to send the Bible out of the country, how much more should be expended to keep it in it!-whether, therefore, the Clergy belong to the society in Lincoln's-Inn-fields or to that in Earl street, the interest is the same; and the latter are especially bound to execute the cry of "THE BIBLE, AND NOTHING BUT THE BIBLE!" which years ago they exulted in interchanging with the Dissenters. For unless they exert themselves in time, they will have in some places much less, and in others much more than the Bible, and at last no Bible at all; for experience shows that the Popish version is only permitted to meet actual exigences; and that, if the Papists should preponderate, by the aid of the Government, as in other places, they will quickly either destroy or remove it, and burn all others, leaving to the care of this society in lieu Joachim on his ass, and other equally attractive legends and pictures.

We again urge that these schools should be most liberally conducted, that the teachers should be approved persons, that the rewards for merit should be great and good; in fact, that every inducement should be devised to keep the children of Protestants from the bearish hugs of Papists. It has been shown that the legislature cannot contravene this plan without violating a right over which the law has no control, because it flows from a higher source; in such a case we may justly refuse obedience. But we affirm that in a day of agitation, distrust, and hatred, like this, they will not dare to infringe that right: so that, whilst it is inviolable, it gives to us the means of repelling the threatened evil.

The Government seem to acts with uniform folly: like a

woman at her toilet when her house is in flames, they disrobe the Church of its power, when political agitation and the insubordination of the multitude threaten their existence. Their noxious opinions and falsely-called Liberalism have practically operated on the mass, and they have raised commotions which they have neither the firmness nor intelligence requisite to subdue. They are mere men of words, whose badly-expended breath has fanned the flame of desolation around them; they devise new schemes to amuse the many-headed monster, as toys are given to amuse a child, and are unparalleled, incomparable, and egregiously superlative in their asinine qualities. Nay, not only has our internal peace been endangered, but in our foreign relations we have been rendered contemptibly ridiculous. Suspicion has fastened itself on the Russian empire; nevertheless, to the Hereditary Grand Duke our strength and our weakness have been exposed; and to his scientific attendants every opportunity for observation, which may hereafter be hostilely applied, has been afforded. So acted Hezekiah with respect to the envoys from Babylon; yet there was a Babylonian war, and there was a Babylonian captivity.

For many years there has not been a session of Parliament which gave such promise of being pregnant with importance; yet what has been done? Slippery Melbournades and diminutively tiny Russellades have been the only mice which the labouring mountain of the State has brought forth; well, then, may it be complained that the Premier mouse has persisted in gnawing the royal cheese, and that all have exhibited the polluting qualities of Harpies! Strange, however, is it, that with internal pressure and its common consequences-with disorderly meetings, which there is not spirit to check-and with the fire almost placed under the combustible pile, these men should cling to their offices, and trifle, as it were, over the rumbling earthquake. Rare Marii, forsooth, are they on the ruins of Carthage! Stranger yet is it, that a Government, knowing itself to be the object of general distrust, whose imbecility and versatility extinguish every hope of future energy and straightforward conduct, should not hide itself in shame, and make room for better and more efficient men! The substance of their projected improvements has invariably been as thin as a shadow; it has been the ideal point of the mathematician, which has no parts; and all their glances at things past, present, and to come, have been more evanescent than the transient views of a moving panorama. Which of them can prove that he can conscientiously say, with Agamemnon, and with equal resignation of the thing in dispute

Βουλομ ̓ ἐγὼ λαὸν σοὸν ἕμμεναι, ἢ ἀπολέσθαι?

WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, STRAND, LONDON, PRINTER.

THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Quarterly Review.

OCTOBER, MDCCCXXXIX.

ART. I.-Evangelicalism generally; and more especially as it exists in the Parish of St. Mary, Islington. By a MEMBER OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. London: Mann. 1839. ̓Απὸ τῶν καρπῶν ἀυτῶν ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς.—Matt. vii. 20,

FEW titles have been more unhappily chosen than this; for it expresses not the character of those who have applied it to themselves. The worldly spirit, the love of lucre, the bigotry, and occasionally the unrelenting temper of the self-styled Evangelicals, who too often, like the Pharisee, thank God that they are not like other men, are as contrary to the principles and precepts of the Gospel as in other respects can be the conduct of the many whom they condemn. Though they have a name, by which they live, there is reason to fear, that they are not unfrequently spiritually dead.

To this class of men, whose profession is most highly sounding, and whose claims are as exclusive as those of the Romish Church, we may trace many of the evils, which the present day has ripened. Their sermons have been calculated to lead the passions rather than the reason, the exercise of which has often been denounced as carnal and opposed to the Spirit; and by the effervescence which has been excited have the calling and conversion of individuals been imagined to be determinable. As a natural consequence, the habit of ranting was adopted by those of more sanguine temperaments, whilst a growling and bellowing unearthly voice was practised by others; and the sanctuary was in each case profaned by histrionic trickery.

VOL. VI.-T