love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha !” Haverfordwest. is loaded-the match is just about to be applied-and the christless sinner must perish; for if any man J. B. A SUGGESTED CORRECTION OF PALMER CORRECTED. To the Editors-IT appears to me that there is not the slightest reason to suppose with your Correspondent J. E., that James Livesey, the author of IIvevμa Toλoyia, is the same person with Mr. Lively, or Livesly, mentioned in Palmer's Nonconformist Memorial. It is evident that Mr. Livesey was a conformist, so that on the supposition of identity, the name of Leveley or Livesley, should have no place in Palmer's Catalogue. But this supposition is, I conceive, annihilated by the fact that Mr. Livesey was an author of considerable celebrity in his time, and it is not at all probable that Calamy, who published his first edition in 1702, should have been so ignorant of Mr. L.'s sentiments on church discipline, nay even of his history, and of the orthography of his name, as to insert in a catalogue of ministers ejected in 1662, the name of a gentleman who continued in the church till 1674, and most probably till his death, and that too under a mispelled appellation, which Mr. Livesey's title-pages would have sufficiently rectified. Perhaps J. E. will not be unwilling to receive the following hints respecting Mr. Livesey. He was in 1660 minister at Atherton. His publications, in addition to that already mentioned, are "Enchiridion Judicum, or Jehoshaphat's Charge to his Judges, together with Catastrophe Magnatum, 8vo."-" Funeral Sermon for John Atherton, Esq. on 2 Sam. iii. 38, 39. 8vo. 1660." "The greatest Losse, a Sermon on Matt. John Atherton, xvi. 26. 8vo." Esq. of Atherton, was Mr. Livesey's patron. Mr. Livesey appears to have removed to Great Budworth about the time of the Act of Conformity; probably the living of Atherton had been conferred on him in the unsettled times of the Parliament, and was again restored to its original incumbent on the restoration. I cannot offer any solution to the question respecting the true name of the gentleman ejected from Great Budworth. But, however the case may be in this instance, a new edition of Palmer, or rather of Calamy, is much wanted. There are many considerable additions to those volumes in private hands, and if any enterprising bookseller would take the pecuniary risk, I doubt not but some one of the many admirers of the noble army of confessors of 1662, would willingly undertake the literary task. UNUS CULTORUM. Another Correspondent has sent us the following remark connected with this discussion. Calamy, in his account of Ejected Ministers, (Vol. II. of his Abridgment of Baxter's Life, p. 135.) gives, under Cheshire— Bridworth. Mr. Levesley"-and adds nothing more. But there is no such place as Bridworth, and, from a bad hand-writing, it might easily be mistaken for Budworth. James Livesey was the Vicar of Budworth. Mr. Palmer seems to have been misled by Mr. Calamy's inaccuracy or want of information. ON SOME NOVEL PHRASES RELATING TO AN ORDINATION SERVICE. To the Editors.-WE frequently hear now-a-days of "the march of intellect," and old-fashioned people are accustomed to various novelties. Care must, however, be taken, that while information and inventions multiply, the proper use of words is not forgotten. Many of your friends were surprised and amused to read, in your number for June, of a minister being "installed" over the Congregational Church in Belfast, and of an "installation prayer" having been offered on the occasion. We are familiar with the terms as connected with the different orders of knighthood among the nobility, and some of the higher functionaries in the national hierarchy, but for introducing them to describe the "ordination" of an independent minister, there surely exists no authority, and I am desirous of preventing your valuable miscellany being appealed to as countenancing such an abuse of words. I am aware a prejudice prevails that in "the Sister Isle" expressions occasionally flow faster than ideas, though I have heard a shrewd Scotsman attempt to account for what are termed "Irish bulls," on the supposition that utterance cannot keep pace with the rapidity of thought among the sons of Erin. However that may be, English noncons will always prefer accuracy and simplicity above finery, as characteristics of your pages. POETRY. Yours, &c. VEREUM SAT. "PEACE I LEAVE WITH THEE."-JOHN xiv. 5. SUCH was thy legacy at parting, Lord! All pow'r, all willingness to give were thine; The noble's dignity, -the miser's hoard, The field, the flock, the olive, and the vine, All these thy bounty could thy friends afford ;- Still wedded to earth's joys, though vain and false they be. REVIEW OF BOOKS. The Church in Danger from Herself: or, The Causes of her present declining State explained. Dedicated to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. By the Rev. John Acaster, Vicar of St. Helen's, York, and Domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of Mexborough. London: Seeley and Sons, Fleet Street. pp. 171. 6s. She is IT is an ominous thing to hear the of danger when no danger apcry pears to be near. To hear this cry uttered by the inhabitants of a place when not assailed by external foes, indicates that something is wrong among themselves; and we have the highest authority for asserting, that a house or a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand -such are the present circumstances of the church established by law in this country. surrounded by walls and bulwarks, lofty and strong; built upon the foundation of the King, Lords, and Commons of England; adorned and nourished by learned and exclusive Universities, which take great care that should men come in, either avowed enemies, or in different friends, that they shall all be sworn believers and advocates of her cause before they go out; guarded and protected by orthodox creeds and articles; secured by canons and liturgies, all of which men are required ex animo to believe to be according to the word of God; superintended by Bishops and Archbishops, and a host of Clergy, all of whose interest it is to promote her prosperity and glory; beside many other provisions, all tending to secure her safety and advance her prosperity. Without, at this moment, there is nothing peeping, and muttering, or presenting a hostile aspect. The Dissenters, who are regarded as the sworn and natural foes of the church, never were Whether the Repeal of the Test Act more quiet. has operated upon them as a narcotic, we cannot say; but certainly they can for some time back by their resthave alarmed nobody lessness or clamour. We have, in fact, been reproaching ourselves of ing indifference to our own intelate, for our passiveness and seemrests, as well as apparent unconcern about the aggressive movements of the church. But we have been roused from this apparent apathy, to give our nonconformist friends, much in earnest; he writes strongly, Mr. Acaster is evidently very the pledge of his sincerity, dediwarns faithfully, gives his name as cates his book to the two Archhend, that their Graces will pay bishops, with little hope, we appreany attention to the subject. chapters, in which the following subjects are discussed. The work is divided into four "I. The Necessity of a Church EstaChristian Religion through successive blishment to maintain and perpetuate the generations, and to meet the religious wants of the nation. "II. The Church of England, as by ciently administered, peculiarly adapted law established, is, if properly and effito maintain and perpetuate the Christian Religion, and to meet in every way the spiritual wants of the Nation. ments and Regulations of the Founders "III. Deviations from the Adjustof the Church, the Cause of her present Inefficiency, and of Dissent throughout the Land. "IV. Necessity of returning to the the Church, with regard to all the plans original intentions of the Founders of which they devised, and the regulations they adopted; in order to render her efficient for the purpose intended;-to regain the confidence of the people; and to preserve her in existence." The first chapter on Establishments, is a series of assumptions from beginning to end. Mr. A. does not understand the subject, if he is not aware that all he has said has been answered a thousand times. It would have been satisfactory, had he looked a little at what has been urged in opposition to all the positions he has advanced. But this is only one of the many instances with which we are familiar, of the entire ignorance under which churchmen generally labour of any side of the question except their own. Let us hear a little of what Mr. A. has to say. "But so blind and inconsistent is error, that the stoutest objectors to the religious establishments of the land, are the most tenacious of the privileges, which in fact these establishments bestow: so little, indeed, are most of them inclined to be interfered with, or to suffer any inconvenience either in their persons or in the invasion of their rights, that they are the very first to complain of any, even the least encroachment; and to seek redress from those protecting laws which the state has provided for all the professors of Christianity throughout the land. But if the state had not been professedly Christian, and if Christianity had not been declared by it to be the established religion of the land, there would have been no protection of this description to which they could look. Christianity, and its real professors, would have been always exposed to the scorn, contempt, and persecution, of the wicked; and there I would have been no safety for those who, influenced by its doctrines, and obedient to its laws, separated themselves from the society of their thoughtless and wicked neighbours; and by this declared, that they alone were the children of God. In fact, real Christianity cannot exist but in a state of constant persecution, where it is not professed and protected as the established religion of the land. To entertain the opposite opinion is to do so against the evidence of the most clear and undeniable facts. Left, therefore, to itself, it would only But exist in small and detached societies. and cursed either the church or the Now we beg leave to ask Mr. A. in what page of English History "that he has found it recorded, Dissenters owe the privileges of which they are so tenacious, to the religious establishment of the land?" We are so ignorant as to believe the very reverse, and so sinful, that we do not feel one particle of gratitude for the obligations conferred It is almost provoking to on us. have been oppressed, injured, and insulted by the dominant church, whose wishes, if gratified, would long since have exterminated us, and then to be told we owe all our privileges to it. But we are accustomed to such things. Mr. A. asserts that "real Christianity cannot exist but in a state of constant persecution, where it is not professed and protected as the established religion of the land." Pray is North America in any map with which Mr. A. is acquainted? Does he believe that any real Christianity exists there? Or does it exist only in a state of persecution? If he does not know, he ought to know, that Christianity is, in America, in as good, we might venture to say a better state, then it is in England. The bulk of our Eng. lish population is, according to his own showing, little better than heathen. Let him read again the following passage in his own book. "Has every parish in the kingdom its incumbent constantly living and residing amongst the people? To this question, like the other, a negative answer must be returned. Let us, then, see how the matter stands from the information before us. The Bishop of Winchester tells us, in his late charge at Llandaff, that out of two hundred and thirty-four incumbencies, into which the diocese is divided, only ninety-seven parishes enjoy the advantage of clergy, incumbents and curates, actually resident.' Taking the curates to amount to onehalf of the whole, which will be found I believe to be generally correct, then only about forty-eight of the two hundred and thirty-four incumbents are actually resident in their parishes. 66 6 Conceiving this to be a fair specimen of the state of every diocese in the kingdom, what an alarming reflection is it calculated to excite!! Nearly four-fifths of the parishes throughout the whole kingdom have no resident incumbent; consequently near four-fifths of the peo ple are left, as it respects their paid and legal pastor, as sheep without a shepherd. They have no incumbent to watch over them, to feed them, or to care for their best and highest interests; none to whom they can resort for advice, counsel, or succour, in all their trials, sorrows, temptations, and difficulties; none to instruct, to sooth, and comfort them, on the bed of affliction and death; and none to assist them in their preparation for a boundless and never-ending eternity. Their legal, paid, rightful, and most solemnly avowed instructors are fled. Some they never see or hear, for fiveten-fifteen-twenty, and even thirty years together. Some, again, are born, brought up, marry, have families, live, and die, and enter into eternity, without ever once either seeing or hearing their legal teacher. I speak of numerous facts in all the above instances within my own knowledge, and of several incumbents whose churches and parishes I can see from the place in which I sit and write; so that in regard to the incumbents, there are millions through the land who that careth for have literally no man their souls. What a consideration! What a fearful consideration! "And is all this known, and yet tolerated? Yes, it is known; it is tolerated; it is often facilitated by those whose duty it is to stand in the gap: and what is still more fearful and alarming, it is barred from remedy by the dispensations and licences of our spiritual rulers. "If any thing can unloose the binding sinews of a state; if any thing can weaken and destroy that religious principle which is the only sure bond of its peace and security; if any thing can render an established religion inefficient for the purposes intended by it: if any thing can arouse the displeasure of Almighty God against it, alienate the affections of the people from it, render it loathsome in their estimation, make them desire its downfall, and raise their shout, - down with it! down with it! even to the ground! there is then in this sad and fearful dereliction of principle and of duty a cause afforded, and which, without a speedy remedy, is sufficient of itself to effect eventually the ruin of both. Perhaps half the population of the country have already left the establishment, and ranged themselves under the standard of dissent. And if we add to this, the very slight attention paid to religion by a great majority of the rest, we shall soon perceive the critical situation in which we stand, and how very easy a concurrence of events may turn the scale against us, and involve both the church and the state in one and the same overwhelming ruin."-pp. 103105. This passage requires no comment from us. It is not more severe and solemn than it is true. |