I am one of those, Sir, who regard the protection of the State as highly conducive to the interests of Christianity as a public sanction due to its Divine origin from a nation of Christians-and as expedient, in order to keep the form of religion ever before our eyes, if it be for no other end than to remind us of the reality. I esteem the Church of England, baiting some defects of easy remedy, as an excellent model of an ecclesiastical establishment. I revere its first founders, as erudite scholars and liberal-minded Christians; and it is well known, that had the spirit of their times permitted, they would have entirely removed the remains of Popish hierarchy and superstition which still deface its constitution. I regard the liturgies and forms of this establishment, with very few exceptions, almost perfect patterns of piety and devotional taste, and eminently conducive to the purposes of that public adoration of the Deity which greatly tends to curb our passions and to excite our virtues. Let it, however, be always remembered, that forms and ceremonies have in themselves little intrinsic value; that they are but the means of good; and that the true estimate of the utility and tendency of ceremonies, as well as of opinions on speculative points, is only to be formed on a calculation of their aptitude to influence our practice. Whatever produces a beneficial effect in this way, is of the highest valuewhatever prejudices or retards that object, ought to be abolishedand whatever is neutral in these operations, may be justly viewed as indifferent, and a useless incumbrance. Would to God that Christians could be converted to the belief, that it is not the variety of opinion which occasions our lamentable civil dissensions, but the refusal of liberty to differ; the mischief lies in our not choosing to allow ourselves to differ. If this freedom were permitted in religion, as in all other questions which agitate the human mind, we should preserve the same ingenuousness and good will which we practise in differences on all other subjects of philosophy and science. Those who have done most for the interests of Christianity—who have best acted up to their principles have ever been the most dispassionate and diffident critics. Where doth it intrench upon the temporal governor?-where does it come in his walk?—where does it make inroad upon his jurisdiction? Indeed, if the minister's part be rightly discharged, it renders him the people more conscionable, quiet, and easy to be governed: if otherwise, his life and doctrine will declare him. If, therefore, the constitution of the Church be already set down by Divine prescript, as all sides confess, then can she not be a handmaid to wait on civil commodities and respects; and if the nature and limits of church discipline be such as are either helpful to all political estates indifferently, or have no particular relation to any, then there is no necessity, nor indeed possibility, of linking the one with the other in a special commission.-MILTON, of the Reformation in England. They have viewed the divisions of the Christian world with the regret which their results require of every benevolent mind; and, both by their public and private influence, they have done their utmost to promote conciliation and allay violence. Not an eminent writer, of any age or country, whose character and works have survived the ephemeral prejudices of his time, but strives to impress upon us the virtue of rational doubt and diffident impartiality in all discussions on speculative points of doctrine. On such subjects, the respect due to the opinions of the many wise and excellent men, who, with equal natural and acquired advantages, have differed so widely, and the warning conveyed by their vain and indeterminate disputes, should induce some pause in the judgment. We may be confident and yet mistaken, zealous but unwelcome friends. Christians would generally be surprised, would they but give that attention to discover the agreement that exists between them in all the real elements of their common faith, which they waste in endeavouring to procure unanimity on dogmatic articles: and I really believe, that if all controversies about belief were abandoned, not the slightest detriment would result to the Christian church; but, on the contrary, a far more perfect obedience to those real evangelical rules of devotional faith and practice which were taught by Jesus Christ, and about the tendency and nature of which we are all agreed. Not that it can be rationally expected that the Christian world should ever be in all respects of one opinion and one creed. The principle of human society, and the nature of the human mind, the creature of circumstance and education, will prevent such a uniformity of opinion; and, perhaps, the interest of religion itself requires that these differences should to a certain extent exist. The springs of human action are not always of the purest origin; and without some of the excitement which these divisions create, religion might be in danger from apathy and neglect. The same providence which blessed the human race with the Gospel revelation, could have placed its minutest doctrines, history, and precepts, beyond the power of doubt: that it has not so vouchsafed, is evident; and it is as evident to my mind, that those doubts, and the discussions to which they have given rise, were permitted for important ends. Christianity was not to be propagated by the sword; and rational discussion, enlisting in its service the ardent faculties of the mind, has doubtless, under the dispensation of a wise Providence, been intended as an efficient means to its support and spread. In fact, the apostolic age itself, with all its super-human aid, was not free from its internal disputes. Peter and Paul contended with zeal upon a most vital question; but the ultimate benefit was evident, in the increased energy it gave Christianity, by subdividing the NO. XXXVIII. VOL. XIX. Pam. 2 B labors of the first planters of its truths. So also the apostasies of the early churches served a similar end; and had it not been for the corruptions of the Corinthian and Galatian churches, so lamented and boldly reproved by St. Paul, the present age would not have possessed the powerful evidence for the truth of Christianity which is deduced from his invaluable epistles. Thus all things work together for the best, and out of evil cometh good. So, in the present day, the sifting discriminating industry and nervous intellectual intrepidity of the heterodox dissenter, have originated the most laborious and inestimable investigations of the external evidences of revelation. The cold and sceptical spirit too often accompanying speculative inquiry, is tempered by the taste, erudition, and watchfulness of the orthodox churchman. The one is prevented from starving religion, and the other from smothering it with over care. The democratical honesty of the nonconformist, always disposed to doubt and attack every thing old, is opposed to the subserviency of State divines, whose business it is to maintain whatever is established. The toy-shop of the Catholic has a set-off in the ice-house of the free-thinking dissenter, and the happy medium lies between them. Thus in the political world the dangers of a too ardent philanthropy are met and prevented by a scrupulous idolatry of every thing pleading the sanction of age-a most useful counterpoise, by which the rust of time is often removed, and yet the dangers of rapid changes averted. It would be unwise to seek the abrogation of an indifferent law, before we have a better to superinduce in its stead; and it is folly to condemn the evils of any institutions, without balancing their accompanying good. But even if heresy and schism be the evils, "the plague, the pestilence, and famine," which thus appear when hovering before the eyes of many a zealous churchman, constraint and insult will never eradicate them, or produce conviction. The experience of all ages shows the mistaken effect of violence and persecution. "He is the true heretic who burns-not he who is burnt." Creeds, articles, and catechisms, instead of making all mankind think alike, have had the very opposite tendency. It is high time for priestcraft, therefore, to adopt some other course; seeing that all its efforts cannot impede the march of the human mind, or prevent the use of that noble and distinctive prerogative of human nature-the liberty of philosophising. When I see these futile attempts to force all our thoughts down the State channel, I cannot help thinking of the Irishman's exclamation in the burning faggot-" Ah, my honeys, men will never all see alike till their eyes are put out!" A catholic spirit of religious liberty may subsist under infinite varieties of opinion, and without the least prejudice to the advance ment of the true one. "It was a notable observation of a wise father," says Lord Bacon," and no less ingenuously confessed, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves for their own ends." The same incomparable writer, every sentence of whose Essays contains a quarry of wisdom, relates that it is noted by another father, "Christ's coat had indeed no seam, but the Church's vesture was of divers colors: there may be varieties of colors in the vestures, but let there be no rent.' These human varieties of opinion," says Milton," are as necessary to truth, as the storms of the material world to the purifying the atmosphere." And at that glorious day, when He shall come to judge the quick and the dead," he shall bring together every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of loveliness and perfection." دو Professing, therefore, great veneration for the Established Church, I must admit, as a consequence, that it ought to be upholden and maintained with dignity and effect. But I am one of those, as by this time it will be suspected, who consider the Church of England may well subsist, and be more firmly estab lished, without any civil disabilities being inflicted on those who separate themselves from its communion "To force our consciences that Christ made free, I am of opinion that many of its articles of belief are by no means necessary, and, on the contrary, often hurtful to its constitution: .I Arguments without end have been adduced in proof of toleration. "Every man has an undoubted right to judge for himself in matters of religion; nor should any mark of infamy, or any civil penalty, be attached to the exercise of his right. Every man has a right to the common privileges of the society in which he lives; and, among these common privileges, a capacity in law for serving his sovereign and country is one of the most valuable, distinguishing a legal capacity of service from a right to an actual appointment, which depends upon the choice of his sovereign, or of his fellowcitizens; and this capacity of serving the State is a right of such high estimation, and of such transcendent value, that exclusion from it is deemed a proper punishment for some of the greatest crimes. Actions, and not opinions, political or religious, are the proper objects of human authority and cognizance. No man, who does not forfeit that capacity of serving his sovereign and country, which is his natural right, as well as the honor and emoluments that inay happen to be connected with it, by overt acts, ought to be deprived of them; and disabilities that are not thus incurred are unjust penalties, implying both disgrace and privation. Punishment, without the previous proof of guilt, cannot be denied to be an injury; and injuries inflicted on account of religion are undoubtedly persecutions. The ends of civil society can never justify any abridgment of natural rights that is not essential to these ends. The institutions of religion, and the ordinances of civil government, are distinct in their origin and their objects, in the sanctions that enforce them, and the mode in which they are administered." and as I can concede infallibility to no set of men, I contend that the several circumstances of persons, time, and place, may require that variation should, from time to time, be made in its formularies and outward professions. These, Sir, were the principles of the very men who, at the Reformation, remoulded the worn-out shape of Catholic Christianity; and to impugn these principles, is to dig up the very foundations of our church, and to destroy the materials which its founders left for its repair. And fatal will it be to the Church of England, as it has been to all former establishments, if pride and prejudice shall oppose that needful emendation which the circumstances of the times render not only politic but necessary. He is, indeed, a treacherous friend to the church, who would throttle it in the gripe of custom. "As those who first bring honor into their family, are commonly more worthy than most that succeed; so the first precedent (if it be good) is seldom attained by imitation. Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator; and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end? All this is true, &c. if time stood still; which contrariwise moveth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times, are but a scorn to the new. It were good, therefore, that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived; for otherwise whatsoever is new is unlooked for; and ever it mends some, and impairs others: and he that is holpen takes it for a fortune, and thanks the time; and he that is hurt for a wrong, and imputeth it to the author."-Lord BACON on Innovations. A salutary inspection and revision of the Establishment has been counselled by some of the most learned and upright Prelates. The rejection of their advice has been the notorious cause of the increase of dissent from its forms and doctrines, and of separation from its communion; first, on the ground of church government occasioned by this obstinate contempt of the first principles of the Reformation; and, subsequently, on the score of differences in opinion on doctrinal points, which has since crumbled Christianity into innumerable and infinitely divided atoms, and (in the vulgar language of a sceptical writer) has made the Christian doctrines "spiritual make-baits, bareters, beautifeus, and incendiaries-and churches bear-gardens, where beasts are only the combatants." It is high time, therefore, that out of a regard to its own exis |