Thoughts on the Anglican and American-Anglo churches

Front matter

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

The Department of History, Pr^sbvterian Church In the U.S. A ^X.5°55 .B86 1822

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Table Of Contents

Advertisement, v. vi.

Introduction — Protestant episcopal church, 1. Author's father, 1,2. Importance of pastoral duty, 3. Collegiate system, 3. Stated ministry, 4. Formalists, 3, 4. Evangelical clergy, 5. Rev. T. Scott, 6. Public schools in England, 6. Nominal Christianity, 7. Atonement, 8. Jeremy Taylor, 8. Fagging, 9. Bishop Huntingford, 10. Bishop Mant, 11. Winchester rebellion. 11. Pious education, 12. Church of Christ, 13. Septimu.« Collinson, 15. Anglican church and state, 16. Bishop Warburton, 17. Religious proscription, 18. Test and corporation acts, 18. Church patronage, 19. Formalism, 20. Bishop-making. 21. Election of bishops, 22. American bishops, 23. American- Anglo-Church, 24. Tithes, 25. Lord Chatham, 25. British expenditure, 26. Irish state clergy, 27. Irish popery, 28. Irish character, 29. State of Ireland as to popery and protestantism. 30. Simpson's plea, 31. Micaiah Towgood, 32. Messrs. Bogue and Bennet, 33. Anglican Church, 33. Edinburgh, 34. Mr. Alison, 35. Halyburton, 35. Study of sceptical writers, 36. Infidelity, 37. Medical faculty, 37. United States and Britain, 38. Christian Observer, 39. Dr. Mason, 40, 41. Dr. Chalmers 42. American lawyers, 43.

CHAPTER I. On the Anglican Church Establishment

Rev. S. C. Wilks. 44. Necessity of church establishment, 45 Constantine, 45,46. Parliament church, 47. Popish establish ments, 48. Present English church establishment, 49. Late queen and liturgy, 50. Secular religion, 51. Slate clergy not martyrs, 52. Irish church establishment, 53. Religion in and out of the establishment, 54. Anglican bishops in 1760, 55. English clergy, 56. Secular clergy, 57. Importance of national rc

Contents

ligion, 58. Latitudinarian clergy, 59. Orthodox clergy, GO. Evangelical clergy, 62. Revivals discouraged by English church. 63. Recent episcopate, 63. Importance of dissenters, 64. On America, 64. On true religion, 65. On social religion, 66. On sacred literature, 67. Bodies of divinity, 68. Rev. T. Scott, 69. Hoiror of Calvinism, 70. On public morals, 71. National church character, 72. Good examples, 73. Civil liberty, 74. Religious liberty, 75. Church evangelicals persecuted, 76. National prosperity, 77. Churchmen and dissenters, 78. The English, a persecuting church, 79. The schism bill, 80. Protest against it, 81. Popery schemes, 82. Church catechism, 83. Church persecution, 84. Janseuist and atheist, 85. Bishop Tomline, 86. American Toinlines, 87. Francis the first, 88. Cardinal Bellarmin, 89. George first and second, 90. George third, 91. George fourth, 92. Persecuting bishops, 93. Suspended curates, 94, 95. Power of bishops, 96. Rev. I. P. Jones, 97. Counter signature, 98. Church peril, 99. Popular opinion, 100. Intolerance, 101. Lipsius, 102. Defender of the faith, 103. Reading sermons, 104. Unpreaching bishops, 105. Names of reproach, 106. Joan of Kent, 106. Anabaptists, 107. Reformation imperfect, 108. Protestant martyrs, 108. Formal persecutors, 109. Established and unestablished, 1 10. Arch calumniator, 111. High commission uniformity, 1 12. Elizabeth's injunctions, 113. Family prayer discouraged, 113. Church vestments, 1 14. Puritans and baptists executed, 115. Low state clergy, 116. Elizabeth's piety, 1 16. James the first, 117. Leaning to popery, 118. Hampfon court conference, 119. Sunday sports, 120. Arians burned, 121. Schemes of Laud, 122. Charles the first, 123. Laud's cruelty, 124. Arminian archbishop, 125. Chief justice Richardson, 126. Leigliton, Prynne, 127. Emigrations, 128 Laud's prevarication, 129. Charles's proclamation, 130. Seventeenth article, 131. Richard Montague, 132. Bishop Davenant, 133. Predestination, 134. Charles's Jesuitism, 135. Generic formalism, 136. Laud whitewashed, Johnson Grant, Joanna Southcote, 137. Infidelity, popery, 138. Ceremonial religion, 139. Burnet's character of Laud, 140. Modern theology, 141. Bishop Gleig, 142. Dogmatism. 143. Party feeling. O. P. 144. Church preferment, 145. Clarendon's apothegm, 146. Laud in Scotland, 147. English stite clergy, 148. New-York Sabbath, 149. Church overthrow, 150. Modern formalists, 151. Compulsory uniformity, 152. Sin of schisn, 153. Presbyterian persecution, 154. State churches cruel, 155. Button breach, 156. Ejected allowance, 157. Protestant council, 158. Stuart cruelty, 159. James Sharp, 160. Goodwin. Cromwell, 161. Borel, Charles, 162. Westminster Assembly, 163. Commonwealth religion, 164. National religion, 165. Cromwell's chaplains, 166. Baseness of Charles, 167. Clarendon, Southampton, 168. Bartholomew Act, 169. Mistake of the Christian Observer, 170. Proportion of Church evangelicals, 171. Sheldon, 173. Formal clergy, esta-

CONTENTS.

fa blisbed,unestablished, 174. Charles's popery, 176. Patriarch of Constantinople, 177. Present state church, 178. Secular clergy, 179. Charles's bishops, 180. Savoy conference, 181. Baxter. Gunning, 182. Stricter conformity, 183. Foreign ordination, 184. French Bartholomew, 185. Ijected ministers, 186. Nonconformists, 187. Grasping state clergy, 188. Philosophical divines, 189. Infidelity, formalism, 190. Emperor of Austria, 101. Popery. Irenicum, 192. New style of preaching, 193. Execution of Bartholomew act, 194. Conventicle act, 195. Five mile act, 196. Charles's hypocrisy, 197. Making a bishop, 198. Comprehension scheme, 199. Parker, Marvel, 200. Venal parliament, 201 . Sir John Coventry, 202. Lord Sidmouth's bill, 203. State churches, 204. English infidelity. 205. Anglican Church tendencies, 206. Nominal Christians, 207. Samuel Shaw, 208. Books recommended, 209. Profligate court, 210. Infidelity, 21 1. Sabbath profanation, 212. Church formalism, 213. Fashionable theology, 214. High and low church, 215. Doctrines of grace, 216. Revival in England, 217. English state clergy, 218. Bolingbroke, Calvin, 219. Bishop Trelawney, 220. Episcopal Declaration, 221. Church evangelicals, 222. Church despotism, 223. Scottish episcopacy, 224. Jurants, nonjurants, 225 — their reunion, 226. Church order, 227. Mr. Hervev , 228. Sectarian bigotry, 229. Mr. Robinson, 230. Mr. Scott, Mr. Newton, 231. London religion, 232. Protestant association, 233. Spirit of popery, 234. Church bigotry, 235. General profligacy, 236. Church evangelicals, 237. Revivals, 238. Discouraged in Anglican Church, 239 ; and in American-Anglo-Church, 240. Formalism, popery, 241. Revivals, Best Christian, 242. Church evangelism, irreligion, 243 Irish toleration, 244. God's government 245. Newton's situa tion, 246, Home heathenism, Moravians, 247. Prayer, missions, 248. Church order, 249. Infidelity, lay preaching, 250. Dark ness of England, 251. Church negligence, awakenings, 252. Growth of dissenters, 253. Politics, Catholicism, 254. Formal preaching, 255. Proportion of church evangelicals, 256. Church preferment, 257. Church ordination, 258. Christian Observer. 259. Bible Society, 260. Established churches, 261. Condition of Ireland, 262. Irish state clergy, 263. Papal tyranny, 264. Cure of souls, 265. Formal church preaching, 266. Infidelity, sedition, 267. English public schools, 268. Religious education, 269. British government, 270. Learned clergy, 271. Converted ministry, 272. London criminals, 273. State church negligence. 274. State church character, 275. State church patrons, 276. Recapitulation, 277, 278

CHAPTER II. On the Anglican Church Establishment

VVilks on American religion, 279. Necessity of state church. 280. British Review, 281. American religion. 282. Dr. BeecherV

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CONTENTS.

calculations, 283. Proportion of American clergy, 284. Their general character, 285. Anglican clergy, 286. Theological seminaries, 287. Other institutions, 288. Harmony, revivals, missions, 289. Progress of U. S., 290. Religious services, 291. Church unity, 292. Exclusive churchmanship, 296. W ilberforce, Daubeny, 297, Sir Richard Hill, 298. Church definition, 299. Antijacobin Review, 300. True church, 301. Church building, 302. Church patronage, 303. Mr. Gladstone, 305. Bishop Ryder, 306. Best church patronage, 307. Best church treasury, 308. American objects, 309. British pressure, 310. Salaried sinecures, 311. Crown influence, 312. Postmaster, public opinion, 313. New- York Church establishment, 314. Virginia Church establishment, 315. English state church, 316. Earlier methodists, 317. Oxford expulsion, 318. Mr. Welling. 319. Drs. Nowell and Durell. 320. Check to evangelism, 321. Sir Robert Walpole, 322. Sacramental test, 323. Spirit of sect, 324. Want of ordinances, 325. Evangelizing the earth, 326. Efforts of Britain, 327. Power of sectarianism, 328. American religion, 329. Report of General Assembly, 330. Rational Christianity, 331. Want of ministers, 332. Religion is increasing, 333. Missions, revivals, 334. Prayer, preaching, 335. Seamen, Princeton, 336. American sects, 337, British religion, 338. American home mission, 339. New-England regulations, 340. The standing order, 341. Massachusetts religion, 342. Congregational order, 343. New-England character, 344. Condition of United States, 345. American-Anglo- Church, 346. Diocesan consolidation, 347. Parish making and voting, 348. Primitive persecutions, 349. First state church, 350. Christianity before, 351, and after establishment, 352. Church governments in United States, 353. American-Ansilo- Church, 354. Presbyterians, methodists, 355. Congregationalists, 356.

CHAPTER III. On the Anglican Church establishment

English church patronage, 358. British cabinet, 359. English church perishing, 360. Churchmen, nonconformists, 361. Head of the church, 362. English church notions, 363. Unestablished church, 364. Scottish Kirk, 365. Bishops Home, Horsley, 366. An American divine, 367. Christian church, 368. Evangelical curates, 369. Evangelical presentees, 370. English church patronage, 371. Rev. T. Scott, 372. Peterborough questions, 373. English clergy training, 374. Foxhunting parson, 375. Evangelical preaching, 376. Church of God, 377. English church preaching, 378. Ready made sermons, 379. Rev. Mr. Bugg, 380. Rev. Dr. Stuart, 381. Bishop Tomline, 382. American Tomlines, 383. Pravina; punished, 384. Formalism depopulates, 385. The Anglican Church, 386. Evangelism fills it, 387. Two end* of preaching, 388. Retarded progress, 389. Of American-Anglo-Church,

CONTENTS.

390. Clerical formalism, 391. Sabbatical indulgence, 392. Unlearned clergy, 393. American-Anglo-Church performances, 394. Prospects of American-Anglo-Church, 395. British burdens, 396. American feelings, 397. No carriage horses, 398. Agricultural distress, 399. English peasantry, 400. Game laws, 401. Condition of Ireland, 402. Canning, Peel, 403. Religious disabilities, 404. State church ineffectual, 405, and formal and persecuting, 406, and weakens government, 407. Evangelism increasing. 408 ; but not owing to state church, 409, which persecutes evangelism, 410. Rev. Mr. Polwhele, 41 1. Mr. Wilks's position doubted, 412. Anticipation of, 413. Future labours, 414.

CHAPTER IV. Exclusive Churchmanship

Popish infallibility, 415. English dissenters, 416. A popish tenet, 417. Argumentum ad modestiam, 418. Condition of salvation, 419. Uncovenanted mercy, 420. Dodwell nonjuror, 421. Belief in a bishop, 422. Whitfield, 423. Episcopacy, presbytery, 424. Wandsworth presbytery, 425. Grave questions, 426. Archbishop Wake, 427. Rev. Samuel Wix, 428. Dissenters, papists, 429. Rev. Dr. Bowden, 430. Unchurching, 431. National churches, 432. Covenant-dilemma, 433. Calvinistic presbyterians, 434. Mr. Wesley, 435. Calviu, Van Armin, 436. Justification by faith, 437. Formal theology, 438. General Wolfe, churchmanship, 439. Church, visible and invisible, 440. The true church, 441. Religious indifference, 442. Preach the gospel, 443. Christianity, clergy, 444. Covenant of grace, 445. Henry Martyn, 446. Church of Christ, 447. All sects exclusive, 448. jVo exclusive church, 449. Name of Christ, 450. Church controversy, 451. Dr. How, Millennium, 452. Catholic communion, 453. Formal monopolies, 454. Jewish formalists, 455. Roman and Anglican Churches, 456. Lutherans, reformers, 457. Bishop Ridley, 458. Christian rivalry, 459. Salvation individual, 460. Church order, 461.

CHAPTER V. Baptismal Regeneration

Bishop Mant, 462. Real regeneration, 463. Woman in trouble, 464. Matthew Mead, 465. Dead baptism, 466. Baptism, what, 467. Modern theology, 468. Predestination, 469. Fulgentius, 470. Infant damnation, 471. Church declension, 472. Waterland, Doddridge, 473. Tomline, Scott, 474. Richard Mant, 475. Simon Magus, 476. Mant's tendencies, 477. Antimonianism, popery, 478. Opus operatum, 479. Transubstantiation, 180. Gallows doctrine, 481. Mant's contradictions, 482. Wa= xii

CONTENTSterland, Mant, 483. Justification by faith, 484. Bishop Lavington, 485. Papists, dissenters, 486. Formal champion, 487. Eclectic Review, 488. Falling church, 489. Formal church, 490. Radicals, evangelicals, 491. Subsequent conversion, 492. Scott, Milner, 493. Real regeneration, 494. Lord Thurlotv, 495. Worldly morality, 496. Formal Calvinists and Arminians, 497. Marks of formalism, 498. Formal priests, 499. Bishop Kay, 500.

THOUGHTS

ON THF.

Introduction

Humanly speaking, I have a kind of hereditary and family claim to he enrolled among the advocates of all that vitally concerns the well-being of the Protestant Episcopal Church, whether it be that established in England, or its legitimate offspring located in these United States.

My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all beneficed clergymen in the Church of England. My elder brother is so now ; and I was myself, according to the custom of men, under that national establishment, marked out for the clerical calling from my verybirth. It was, in truth, the dearest wish of my most venerable father's heart, that all his sons should be devoted to the ministry of reconciliation. For this his prayers were ever on the wing to the Throne of Grace, but he died without receiving a full answer to his petitions. His youngest son, while yet scarcely ripening into manhood, perished in the navy ; his second boy embraced a civil occupation ; and his eldest born, alone, waits upon the stately steppings of Jehovah, in the Sanctuary.

What tribute of affection and of gratitude shall I render unto thee, my father and my friend, my guardian and my guide ?

In all the stages and departments of this ever-changing scene of life, my sainted sire bore his faculties author's father.

meekly and well. As a son, he was obedient, dutiful , affectionate ; as a brother, kind, tender, protecting : as a husband, indulgent, gentle, devoted; as a father, benignant, liberal, abounding in all good : as a friend, faithful, generous, constant ; as a public magistrate, upright, just and pure ; as a man, high in talent; extensive in learning, fertile in wisdom, eloquence and wit; in social intercourse, the delight and joy of every one. And above all, as a minister of the Gospel, he was sincere and zealous in the discharge of the duties of his highest, holiest, best vocation ; loyal and true to his great Master, the Captain of Salvation; a plain, perspicuous, powerful preacher of the doctrines of grace to his flock ; in his parish a faithful pastor, visiting his people from house to house, and ever administering to their spiritual needs and earthly wants; a most merciful parent to the poor and destitute. In fine, so happily tempering the blaze of genius with the milder and more heavenly lustre of the Christian graces, meekness, forbearance, patience, charity, that he won the affection, esteem, respect and reverence of all who knew him.

In early life, he distinguished himself as an accomplished classical scholar ; he bore away, also, one of the highest mathematical honours at Cambridge, as second wrangler of his year. Fully fitted by his talents, his connexions, his acquisitions, his accomplishments, his fortune, to mingle with and mount in the tumultuous intercourses and conflicts of the world, he preferred the calm, sequestered vale of life, to all the excitements of ambition, the seductions of pleasure, the te.nptations of wealth. He held on the noiseless tenoi of his way as an humble parish priest, watching over and labouring for the best, the everlasting interests of a plain unlettered peasantry.

In his life he exemplified the blessed influences of the doctrines of the Cross ; and in his death, he bore the fullest testimony that faith, undivided faith in the free and finished salvation, the gratuitous, unmerited, sovereign mercy, the infinite sacrifice, the all-sufficient righteousness, the all-prevailing intercession of the

IMPORTANCE OF PASTORAL DUTY.

s

Lord Jesus Christ, as the only foundation of present peace and future hope, and eternal bliss ; utterly casting away every reliance upon the wretched, helpless works of human frailty and imperfection, is the alone sure and steadfast anchor of the soul in that awful hour of earthly dissolution, when man sinks from ail that he sees and knows, into all that lies hidden behind the veil of unrevealed futurity.

May I, and mine, die the death of the righteous ; and may our "last end be like Iks !

The importance of a faithful and zealous parish priest to the Church of Christ, in particular, and to the community generally, is not sufficiently appreciated nor understood. Some, laying too much stress upon preaching only, and others relyingtoo much upon mere forms of prayer, leave parochial visitation to be performed or not, as inclination may direct, or opportunity offer, or caprice dictate.

The collegiate system, still adoptetrby foo many of the American churches, which consists in making two or more clergymen tenants in common of several congregations, precludes the power of performing regular pastoral duty. And the formalists, who make up an awfully numerous part of every Christian community, and are, without peradventure, the most pernicious of all the enemies of spiritual religion, are generally apt to think the pastoral visits of their minister quite a work of supererogation, and to insist that a little thin, diluted sabbatical morality, a miserable deterioration of heathen ethics, of the unsanctioned codes of Plato, or Epictetus. or Seneca, is abundantly sufficient to carry both parson and people to heaven ; in direct contradiction to the whole tenor of those sacred Scriptures, which they seldom hear, and still more seldom read. > Let it not be deemed harsh and uncharitable to say, that formalists are enemies to spiritual religion in Christian countries, and in this enlightened era of the world. For, although civilization may alter habits, it does not change the heart ; and the experience of every day fihows, that men of decent exterior and punctual oh-

USE Ot A ST A 'I ED MINISTRY.

servers of all the forms and ordinances of their own particular Church, are as bitter persecutors, to the extreme extent of their power, of all evangelical piety, as the most open and shameless profligates can be. The natural enmity of the heart against God, and the things of God, is as fierce and unrelenting at this moment, as it was when the Scriptures first announced the awful and humiliating truth.

The whole history of the Christian Church, from the advent of the Messiah to the present hour, proves, that without a stated ministry, and a regular performance of pastoral duty, no congregation ever can be built up in spiritual growth and holiness. A clergyman may preach ably, pray earnestly, expound instructively, and yet, without parochial visitation, be lamentably deficient in feeding the flock committed to his charge. No Christian community can be bound up and consolidated in its most valuable, its immortal interests, unless the minister gives continually a sound exposition of the Holy Scriptures, trains up the youth in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, carries the law and the Gospel home to the business and the bosoms of all his hearers, and enforces the duty and discipline of personal prayer and domestic worship in every family of his flock.

There are a thousand avenues of conviction to the sinner's heart, which no public instruction from the pulpit can reach. Innumerable difficulties to be solved, and cases of conscience to be explained, which are too minute and too subtle to be comprehended or touched by any course of general ministration. The adaptation of Scriptural truth to many particular circumstances of individual need, can only take place in the familiar conversation of private and friendly intercourse. The hearts of the people are most effectually subdued by a faithful correspondence between the pastor's practice and the preacher's doctrine.

By pastoral vigilance and prudence only, are often to be prevented or checked, the beginnings of those abuses and scandals, which, when unrestrained, defy

EVANGELICAL CLERGY.

ihe interposition of ecclesiastical tribunals, disgrace the Church, and injure the community. How are the children, the rising hope of every congregation, to learn to look up to their minister as to their spiritual father, except by frequent pastoral intercourse ? And how is the clergyman himself to become acquainted with the actual state of his flock, their individual, their family, their social religion and morals, if he only sees them gathered together once in the week to listen to his pulpit discourses ? How are the feeble to be strengthened, the thoughtless admonished, the drooping cheered, the hasty restrained, the poor comforted, the sick soothed, the dying supported, but by the voice, the smile, the tears, the prayers of their pastor; all pointing to the one great sacrifice for sin; to faith in Christ Jesus; a living faith, evidenced by a renewed heart and a holy life, regulated by the commandments of God's own revealed word ?

An able and an eloquent preacher may command the respect and admiration of his audience ; but the gratitude, the affection, the tenderness of an attached people, are never given, save to the conscientious, vigilant, wise and faithful pastor.

The difference between the cold, listless formality of those wretched flocks, who, for lack of pastoral care, look up to their negligent shepherds, and are not fed — and the lively, constantly growing spiritual-mindedness of those congregations who are blessed alike with the public labours and parochial visitations of evaiyrfdical ministers, is immense and awful. The first, even at the best, only add a heap of dull hypocrisy to the huge mass of iniquity which is always festering in its own corruption in a world that lieth in wickedness ; t hat is bursting with sin and sorrow; that drives on its unreflecting course without God, and without Christ, and without hope; while the others are Salient, living springs of her.lth and life to all the surrounding community, who are. checked by their I'epfonfe, won by their kindness, enlightened by their admonitions, improved by their example.

LNGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

If I am not deceived in that which the Holy Spirit has pronounced to be deceitful above all things, I would infinitely rather that a son of mine should he a faithful, zealous, devoted parish priest, than the sovereign of an extended empire.

The venerable Thomas Scott, not long before he died, said — " The work of the ministry appears to mc so great, that nothing else, comparatively, seems worth doing. Christ would not lead an army, nor divide an inheritance, nor be made a king, nor sit in the great council of the nation ; but he would preach the Gospel to the poor."

In order to lay the basis of a liberal education, I was sent, while yet quite a child, to Winchester college, which then, under the auspices of its head-master, the Reverend Dr. Joseph Warton, of classical and poetical memoiT, was reputed to be one of the best of the great public schools in England. During the year in which I was candidate for admission, there were forty applicants, and only three vacancies ; but through the nomination and influence of a clerical brother of Sir William Blackstone, the celebrated commentator upon the Laws of England, I gained admittance, as an Alumnus of St. Mary's college, Winton.

At Winchester, as at Eton and Westminster, two junior seminaries which derive their forms and models of instruction from Winchester, every effort is directed to make the boys good classical scholars ; to render them familiar with the best writers of Greece and Rome, and to teach them a facility of composition, both prose and verse, in the English, Latin, and Greek languages. But how far the formal routine of the chapel prayers and cathedral services, repeated so often on the weekdays, Saint's- days, and Sundays; the indiscriminate admission to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper of all the boys in the sixth form, as a matter of course, without any previous knowledge of, or inquiry into, their spiritual state ; together with a pretty general negligence, on the part of the Warden, Masters and Fellows of the college, as to the tone of morals prevail-

NOMINAL CHRISTIANITY.

ing among the students, is calculated to promote the cause of religion, more especially as by far the greater portion of the boys on the "foundation" of these distinguished institutions, are regularly trained in them to become clergymen in the Anglican Church, has long been doubted by many of the ablest, best informed, and most pious men in the British empire.

Some years since, the Bishop of Meath, and the Rev. Dr. Rennell, Master of the Temple, very forcibly stated to the public their objections, not merely to the total absence of all evangelical instruction in these great seminaries ; but also to their perpetual tendency to promote irreligion and immorality. They were answered in an able and temperate manner by Dr. Vincent, Dean of Westminster, author of the Voyage of Nearchus, and at that time head-master of Westminster school. The more serious part of the people of England, of every religious denomination, are convinced, that the objections of the Irish Prelate and the English Master of the Temple, in relation to the neglect of religious and moral instruction in the great public schools of England, have not been sufficiently refuted.

On this momentous subject, embracing the course and conduct of so large a portion of the English national clergy, the reader will find much to interest and instruct him, in the Christian Observer for 1811. In reviewing Dr. Ireland's " Lectures on Paganism and Christianity compared," to the King's scholars at Westminster, high praise is bestowed on the talents and learning of the reverend author, whose work is ranked with Leland's valuable treatise on the necessity and importance of a Divine revelation ; and with Brucker's elaborate History of Philosophy ; or, at least, with Dr. Enfield's able abridgement of that voluminous work.

The Christian Observer, however, as becomes the faithful champion of evangelical truth, remarks, that, throughout these lectures, this delusive and dangerous error seems to be implied, that the mere speculative, conviction of the truth of Christianity, and the bare profession of it, are all that is required ; — or rather, that

MISTAKEN ATONEMENT.

every nominal is a real Christian. By this want of discrimination between real and nominal Christians, between the bare profession and the practical feeling of the Gospel, which is of the very essence of formalism, a delusive satisfaction is produced in those accustomed to hear religion thus imperfectly represented, which seldom fails to render them zealous for the form, and careless of the power of godliness.

In the same volume of the Christian Observer a correspondent calls our attention to another religious publication, intended to edify the same class of young men. It is entitled " Sacred Exercises, in four books, for the use of places of education, particularly Westminster school."

The prayers and collects of this manual of devotion exhibit a strange medley ; and it is not easy to sav on what system of divinity the whole is founded ; some things appearing orthodox, others the reverse. For instance— " Let us, after the example of Peter, labour, most abundantly, to make atonement for our sins." Ought the Westminster, or any other scholars, to be taught such doctrine as this ? Let Dr. Ireland, or any other dignitary of the Anglican Church, answer. Yet such theology must be in good odour among the English public schools; for these " Sacred Exercises" had actually reached a sixth edition, so long since as the year 1792.

Such wnseriptural doctrine, however, sometimes receives the authority of a much higher order of divines than the dismal compiler of this Westminster manual ; for Bishop Jeremy Taylor himself talks of " our sighs atoning for our little sins, and our tears washing away our greater sins." And a strong squint towards this tenet is betrayed in the thirteenth hymn, appended by the authority of the General Convention of the American-Anglo-Church, to David's Psalms in the Common Prayer Book. The title of the hymn is " the Christian's Hope ;" it contains these lines ; —

*But thou hast t.Jd the troubled mind,

Who does her -ins lament ; Thi' timely tribme of litr tears

Shall endless wo prevent."

WINCHESTER COLLEGE.

Ail which is in direct opposition to the evangelical doctrines of plenary atonement, and free salvation, made and effected by Christ himself

In the Christian Observer for 1820, a correspondent notices the deplorable deliciency of religions instruction in the English public schools. He allows, that the perusal of the classic authors of antiquity tends to enlarge the ideas, and to form a correct style ; but insists, that youth need to have pointed out to them the improprieties of the heathen system, and the infinite superiority of the Christian revelation ; objects acknowledged to be of primary importance by Dean Vincent, in his well known pamphlet. It is right to iisform the pupils, that heathen writers are not the models on which their characters, as men and Christians, must be formed ; and that, though classical literature may furnish the understanding, or form the taste, it will neither regulate the affections, nor improve the conduct.

But what direct religious instruction is afforded in these public schools ? Young men, generally, leave them with very imperfect notions even of the first principles of Christianity. Children, in the national and Sunday schools, are, for the most part, better grounded in the elements of revelation, than these embryo bishops, judges, and statesmen. Youth is the most favourable season for inculcating religious principles ; and if this important duty were performed in the great schools, the Anglican Church would exhibit a far greater number of true friends; of men exhibiting that they have religion really at heart, and pulling down the strong holds of dissent by the resistless warfare of a pure, evangelical faith, and a holy, consistent life.

Fagging, or shagging, as it is called at Winchester, is a system of slave trade, and corrupts the heart, by sowing in it the seeds of tyranny and servility; two poisonous plants, extremely adverse to the growth of the Christian religion.

The habits formed in the public schools, are car-

BISHOP HUNTINGFORD.

ried to the universities, whose discipline they generally render ineffectual. Indeed, the foundation-scholars, who speed, receive an ample provision, independently of their conduct at Oxford or Cambridge, or their application to study. Presently these men enter the estatablished church, which is thus, as well as by other means, constantly supplied with a shoal of secular, selfindulgent, formal clergy, whose religion consists mainly in railing at dissenters, and in calumniating and persecuting all evangelism within the pale of the hierarchy.

I had been at Winchester but little more than three years, and had ascended from the lowest class up to nearly the head of the senior part of the fifth form, when a general rebellion against the severe and capricious authority of Dr. Huntingford, then only Warden, now both Warden of Winchester college, and bishop of Hereford, broke out among the gownsmen, or students, on William of Wykeham's foundation. This rebellion was headed, and the oath of universal conspiracy administered, by Richard Mant, then one of the prefects in the sixth form, and now a protestant champion of the popish doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and one of the editors of Mant & Doyley's Family Bible.

In order to set an example of vigorous discipline, the Warden and Fellows of Winchester, after an express pledge on their part to bury the whole under an act of general amnesty, expelled the first forty boys who stood senior on the college rolls. Although much too young, and somewhat too small, at that time, to render any very efficient aid in a riot which proceeded so far as to lock up the Warden, Masters and Fellows in their own respective apartments ; to expel the cooks, butlers, porters, bell-ringers, and other servants from their habitations ; to shut the college-gates, mount the watchtowers, and defy the Marquis of Buckingham's militia, drawn out and paraded to terrify the insurgents ; I yet participated in this paternal benediction ; my name happening to stand the twenty-first on the roll, from that of the head-boy, who was then prefect of the hall.