To him, who admires the beauty, and appreciates the excellence, of this structure, it is a subject of wonder that so many schisms should exist in this country. That difference of opinion, ever in a state of activity, which is not permitted to alter and mould the political Constitution at pleasure, is at liberty to vary the forms of religious worship. Hence the love of independence, and the impatience of restraint, natural to mankind, find in a variety of sects an ample field of exercise.

The guardians of the Church of England should act with the greatest vigilance. They should be always at their post; for although the citadel is built on a rock, against which the open or secret attacks of its enemies shall not prevail, yet the outposts are frequently threatened to be driven in by irruptions from so many quarters, that it is their duty to acquire a knowledge of the causes, which promote those inroads.

Of these causes, a few shall be exposed, with a view to point the public attention to the practicability of their removal.

I. One of these is found in the incessant efforts made by some sectaries to extend their numbers and their influence. To counteract this disposition by corresponding labors, without persecution and without hostility, is the object of a wise policy. But while we lament the existence, and deprecate the increase, of sectaries, prudence suggests the advice of the Doctor of the law in Jerusalem: Refrain from these men, and let them alone. The Government will respect their prejudices, and be satisfied with enacting regulations consistent with their liberty of conscience, but tending to correct the abuses, which by the nature of things will silently creep into every human system. From these the Church of England has not been perfectly free; but the Legislature has from time to time judiciously applied the necessary correctives. It seems equally expedient that Dissenters should submit to the same control, exercised with lenity, moderation, and judgment,

The principal source of the evils of schism is the abuse of the Act of Toleration. "An unlimited toleration of all Religions," says an ingenious writer, attached to the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of his country, "is the most effectual means of putting an end to all religious dissensions, which thrive under persecution, and, when they cease to be opposed, cease to exist." But although the jewel is to be scrupulously preserved, it is necessary sometimes to shake off the dust, which will settle on it, and in time obscure its brilliancy.

! Soame Jenyns's Works, vol. 111. Disquisition viii.,

An indiscriminate admission of persons to the Ministry, often without probation, sometimes without qualification, is not only derogatory to the dignity of the sect, but detrimental to the interests of Religion. The evil is constantly spreading, both by new schismatics, who require a separate Minister, and by new Ministers, who are in want of congregations. "Where no uniform mode of public worship is to be adopted," says the same writer, "every man, who has a sense of Religion, may make one for himself; from whence innumerable sects spring up, each of which may chuse a Minister, who being dependent for subsistence on the voluntary and precarious liberality of his congregation, must indulge their humors, submit to their passions, and learn of them what doctrines they wish to be taught; and consequently none but the most ignorant would undertake such an employment. A people thus left to the dominion of their own imaginations and passions, and the instructions of such teachers, would split into as many sects and parties, divisions and subdivisions, as artifice and enthusiasm can produce; each of which would be attacked with violence and supported with obstinacy." On the other hand, an interested, sometimes a conscientious, founder of a new doctrine, may easily practise on the credulity of a set of men by the charms of novelty, and form one of those new establishments, of which we see frequent instances. Thus the cause and effect are easily commutable.

In the Church of England, in the Church of Rome, and in some other establishments, a regular system of education, a long and deep theological study, are necessary preparations for the ministry. A strict examination of the learning and fitness of a candidate, testimonials from beneficed clergymen of his moral and religious character, a repeated appeal to the people for objections to his claims, and a proof that a new laborer is wanted in the vineyard of the Church, are punctually exacted in our Establishment. But an illiterate person, unknowing and unknown but by a small number of his equals, may by the Act of Toleration demand a licence to preach and explain the Scriptures to Sectaries.

An attempt was lately made by an active and zealous friend of the Church of England to bring the subject before Parliament. His object was, not to diminish the privileges, but to increase the dignity, of the Dissenting Ministry; to preserve the benefit, but to remedy the abuses, of the Act; to promote the pure and reasonable service of God, without inforcing any particular mode of worship. The candor, the moderation and the deference, with which

the subject was introduced, seemed to secure its admission into a Committee; but such was the alarm excited among all descriptions of Dissenters, such was the spirit and number of the petitions, which burst upon the House, that the motion was rejected, to the surprise not only of the noble mover, but of many of the firmest supporters of a liberal and judicious toleration. The principal argument urged in the Addresses was the danger of innovation, the apprehension that the slightest alteration in the Act would lead to the total subversion of it. This sophistry cannot be too strongly reprobated. The Dissenters thus oppose the principles of the Reformation, of the Revolution, of every improvement in civil and political, as well as religious establishments. If their reasoning has any force, it will for ever forbid them to petition for the repeal of the Test Act. They must be consistent in the appli cation of their principle.3

They deprecate all interference of the Legislature in their ecclesiastical concerns. If an attempt were made to subject them to the jurisdiction of the Heads of the Church of England, their objection would be valid. But no control over the appointment of their Ministry is even in the most indirect manner suggested. It is the wish of many of their most constitutional friends to maintain the respectability of their Ministers. This wish is consistent with a strict attention to their qualifications; it is founded on the earliest practice of Christianity. It is a principal object of St. Paul, in the ordination of Ministers of Christ, to check those, who desired to be teachers, understanding neither what they said, nor whereof they affirmed. He exercised the most cautious circumspection in the appointment of Preachers of the word; he selected Timothy, whom he calls his own son in Faith, because he had learned and been assured of the things relating to the doctrine of the Gospel,

The greatest abuse has arisen, not so much from the original Act of Toleration, as from the extension of it in 1779. Thus the plea of the danger of alteration either falls to the ground, or may be urged against the petitio

ners.

2 Many are the salutary regulations, which a fear of innovation has obstructed. The excellent Doddridge informs us in one of his Letters that he, and several other eminent Disseuters, had formed a project, in concurrence with the Bench of Bishops, to effect a union between the Church of England and the orthodox Dissenters; but that the Privy Council checked this intention by expressing a wish to suffer things, that were at rest, to remain in that state!

3 Dissenters are relieved by the annual Act of Indemnity from the operation of the Test Act, which is thus become little more than a dead letter. They are Members of Parliament and of Corporations. Those, who oppose Catholic emancipation from the apprehension that Dissenters must be equally admitted to the same privileges, overlook that important difference. VOL. XIX. NO. XXXVIII. 2 H

Pam.

because from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures, and had consequently been dedicated to the Ministry from his early youth. So apprehensive is the great Apostle of the danger of the sudden and indiscriminate appointment of Ministers, that he charges him to lay hands suddenly on no man. Our Saviour himself chose his Disciples, not because, though illiterate, they thought themselves qualified; but because his omniscience had discovered their peculiar fitness for the propagation of his Gospel. And his instructions and his example, his word and his works, from the time that he first called them to that of his Ascension, had eminently prepared them for the reception of his Holy Spirit. Ministers of the mysteries of God are sent forth as lights to the world; hence the brightness of their understanding, and the clearness of their Faith, should be made manifest. St. Paul directs an examination, not only of the religious, but of the moral, character of the candidates. Let them, says he, first be proved;-then let them use the office of a Deacon, being found blameless.-In order to follow the traces of this enlightened founder of ecclesiastical discipline, it may humbly be suggested that every description of Christians should chuse a Committee of the Heads of their sect, who should have the power to examine every candidate for the Ministry, and whose report of his moral and religious qualifications should entitle him to all the clerical powers and civil privileges allowed by the Constitution to Ministers of Religion. From this regulation the happiest consequences would flow to the public instruction of the people of all denominations in the doctrines of the Gospel and in the service of God.2

1 Memoriæ proditum est, Aluredum haud facilè pati consuêsse, quempiam in Sacerdotum collegium venire, nisi vir probus atque literis institutus esset; utpote qui probè sciret Sacerdotes, secundùm vetus verbum, spectaculum factos esse mundo, ac proptereà alios mortales vivendi modum facilè ab illis mutuarí.

Polydore Virgil.

This regulation is confirmed by the opinion of a sagacious writer: "To obviate by every prudent and mild endeavour the evils, which unavoidably must flow from a loose and indefinite admission of spiritual teachers of any description, is a matter of the very first importance to the interests of religion, morality, and good order. Nor ought it to give the smallest umbrage to the true friends of religious toleration, that some endeavour was used to keep out, as much as possible, men of the most deplorable ignorance and depravity, from the same ready access and participation with those of a different character, in the exercise of holy offices; committing, as it were, a sort of sacrilege on the envied blessings of religious Toleration.

"This supposition being allowed, it follows, that nothing like the disapprobation of the worthy part of Dissenters, could at all endanger the safety

* A minister, among the Independents, of considerable learning and popularity, expressed his hearty approbation of these remarks, and doubted not of the same ready concurrence and support from his Brethren, and the respectable part of the Dissenting Interest at large.

Some of the most reflecting and conscientious among the regu lar Dissenters allow the necessity of an Ecclesiastical Establishment in a State, although they cannot conform to all the doctrines and ritual of the Church of England. Perfection in an Establishment cannot be attained by man; if it could, it would probably fail to receive universal assent, unless it were possible

"To make one reason have the same effect

Upon all apprehensions."

"Should it be still insisted on," to use the words of an author before quoted," that every man is obliged to profess and exercise that religion, which appears to him most consonant to reason, and most acceptable to God, with which no government can have à right to meddle, or power to control; I shall only answer, that all this is undoubtedly a mistake, which arises from applying propositions to men, as members of national communities, which are applicable to them only as individuals. Mankind ought always to be considered in a two-fold capacity; as individuals, and as members of society; that is, as men, and as citizens; in which different situations, so different are their relations and duties, that there is scarce a proposition, which we can affirm of them with ́truth in one, which is not false, if applied to them in the other. It is by this misapplication that the zealous advocates for unbounded liberty, civil and religious, deceive their followers, and sometimes themselves, and draw conclusions equally destructive of all government and religion. Thus, for instance, they assert that all men are by nature free, equal, and independent: this, when applied to men as a general species, is true; they then apply this assertion to men, who are members of civil communities, to whom subordination is necessary, and obedience to their superiors an indispensable duty, and therefore in regard to whom it is absolutely false; and yet from hence they endeavour to prove, that govern'ment is an infringement of the natural rights of mankind. In like manner they affirm, that every man is obliged to make choice of that religion, and to adhere to that mode of worship, which apof this measure by any opposition to it from them; on the contrary, it may fairly be presumed, that they would most cordially approve and promote by their endeavours the success of it. Lest however it might give offence, if ecclesiastical persons were to interfere and determine on the pretensions of those, who asked a license from the civil Magistrate, it would be right in the very first instance to remove all prejudice of that sort, and to make the Dissenters themselves judges in their own cause: for this purpose, there might be committees appointed in every large town, county, and city, selected from the most approved Ministers of different denominations, who should be authorised to investigate the pretensions and recommendations of every person, who, as a public teacher, was desirous of availing himself of the Act."-Dr. Barry's Call to a new Species of Dissenters, page 20, 3d Ed.