the close of a dissolute life. She who once lived deliciously, and courted kings to her couch, is now spurned, and mocked, and hated, in her wrinkles. Every ear into which she would whisper an obsequious petition, is averted from the steam of her corrupted breath!

The Greek church should not be quite omitted; but if we affirmed that second childhood had come upon it, we should plainly err; for childishness has been its character, even from its youth up. The offspring of a decrepit power, it has known nothing, in its long life of fourteen centuries-but inanity;-has cared for nothing but toys!

The Protestant communities of northern Europe are not to be spoken of summarily, or in mass. Let them stand aside from our survey. The course of affairs may probably, at no distant time, decide upon their respective merits, and shew which of them has lost, and which retains, the Spirit of Life.' pp. 13-21.

The inference to be drawn from this remarkable fact, the reflections of our readers may in part supply; but we earnestly commend to their attention the brief admonitory remarks with which the paper concludes.

From this extensive survey of the world that lieth in the wicked one', the Author turns to the contemplation of things at home, and, in several of the succeeding papers, portrays, with a profound skill, the distinctive lineaments of the present age; pointing out the dangers and the duties peculiar to the middle position, the transitive state, the crisis of preparation which the Christian Church at present occupies. A few paragraphs will appear to our readers so strikingly in accordance with some of our own remarks in a preceding article, that they may be ready to suspect us of having borrowed his thunder." We were our selves a little startled at discovering the coincidence of sentiments, which, we need scarcely say, is entirely accidental. The Writer of the first article had not seen a page of the volume before us; nor had its Author access to our Reviewer. But doubtless the considerations are obvious enough, and must have employed the solemn meditations of many individuals, although they may not have been conducted to the same conclusions.

Who will deny that, at this moment, there is signally needed some extraordinary effort on behalf of the outcast thousands of the people, whom we have culpably suffered to grow up in the heart of our Christian land, more profligate and more perverted than Hindoos? The exigency of the time calls for a disregard of every puny scruple, of every jealousy, of all ecclesiastical reluctances, and of all sinister views. The dense masses of our atheistic and much-degraded as well as miserable population, should be assailed and courageously entered, by men thinking of nothing but how they may turn the impenitent from the error of his way. If ever it be wise and manly to sacrifice the less to the greater, would it not now be wise and Christian-like to break through ordinary and petty obstacles, and to contemn frigid calculations; rather than that two, or more, millions of the people should

longer be left as they are utterly destitute of religious knowledge, and of every hope? If certain personages are reluctant to assign this work of popular evangelization to the alleged indiscreet zeal of sectarists-the path is open to themselves:-the crowded streets of our great towns are not barred: and how noble a spectacle would it be, to see men of the highest order-the SUCCESSORS OF THE APOSTLES, supported by their colleagues of all ranks, mingling kindly with the people, and inviting the wretched to accept the consolations of the Gospel! Are precedents wanted to justify so extraordinary a course? Let then our protestant church look to the church of Rome; and single instances, at least, will be found of episcopal zeal not less magnanimously irregular. Alas! the church of Rome may boast examples of apostolic greatness and intrepidity, which protestant churches have failed to imitate.

If there seem to be irony in such a proposition-whence does that irony draw its force? Assuredly no derision would have been suspected if, in some hour of public fear, it had been asked of Cyprian, of Gregory, of Athanasius, of Hilary, of Ambrose, of Augustine, to set a necessary example of evangelic charity, in publishing abroad the hope of salvation, when, to multitudes, that hope must instantly be received, or not at all. Is it true, then, that it sounds like the most preposterous of all possible suppositions to imagine a mode of proceeding in our times, such as Cyprian, and Gregory, and Athanasius, and Hilary, and Ambrose, and Augustine, would certainly have adopted, under similar circumstances?-Sad inference, if this be the fact!'

pp. 54-56.

The statement of the general fact of the intellectual advancement of the people is now trite; nor can it well be called in question. But what is the bearing of this state of things upon Christianity? verily we believe it to be favourable;-if those causes are taken into account which lie quite beyond the range of secular calculation. But far otherwise if secular and visible causes only are to be looked to; and it is with these alone that human agency is connected. The sad truth is most conspicuous, that though the diffusion of knowledge has not alienated from Christianity those who were already effectively acquainted with it (far otherwise) and though multitudes, to whom the recent light has scarcely reached, remain nearly where they were, in matters of religion-that is to say, as ignorant of it as Caffres ;-there is a great body of the people, of every class, whom it has served to detach or to disaffect, or to prepare for any sort of impiety. And yet men do not very readily shake off even the prejudices they hold in least esteem; but retain them as habits, and look to them wistfully, after the substantial surrender has been made. And so it is that Christianity-its formalities at least,-stands now on the threshold of thousands and tens of thousands of our English homes-melancholy sight-like an offended or slighted inmate-ready to depart for ever; and yet not quite resolved to go!

Untaught, unguided, and in suspense on all momentous subjects, myriads of the English people, who have learned to think, but who receive no sound instruction, listlessly contemplate the speckled Christianity of our times-uncertain what part to choose; and therefore

VOL. VII.-N.S.

X

actually choosing the part of impiety, or of fatal indifference. Whither should they resort? Not (or it is only the debauched who will do so) not to the teachers of atheism: impudent and frantic men, who have given the best refutation to their folly by their enormities! The English character must fall many-many degrees below its present level, before it can happen that large masses of the community, or any thing but its scum and dregs, shall be seen to circulate around these vortices of impurity and blasphemy.

What then are the alternatives?-Shall this detached mass, rife as it is with conceit, as much as with intelligence, quietly yield itself to be moored back to the haven of established forms, to which it has already become strange? Shall those whose prime lesson, in all that has been taught them of late, is that whatever is ancient is therefore faulty, accept anew, as good and right, a system which the lapse of centuries has not benefitted by a single amendment? It were well if it could be so. Would to God that the erring or dubious thousands of the people might, even now, and under almost any condition, fall back upon the Great Truths which the Reformation gave us, and which the National Church preserves! But alas! can we seriously anticipate such a movement?-In a sense we grant it to be probable:-those who hope well for what they term "The Church,” are thinking only of the most meagre and insincere conformity. This is all they care for-all they understand. Now nothing absolutely forbids it to be supposed that the classes of which we have spoken may continue to yield an external and occasional compliance with certain national religious usages which when so complied with, are of as much value as beads and holy water, or as the praying windmills of the Tartars. This sort of Church of Englandism may perhaps endure a while longer :-Who shall say how long? But are we so dull in understanding as to wish that it should? Do we not know that matters of ritual, which may have some real value and wholesome influence (though not of the highest kind) while a people are in a simple or primitive state, that is to say, while they are ruled by sentiment-by venerable prejudice, and by association, cease to possess any utility after sentiment has been dispelled by the spirit of incredulity and mockery? We have learned nothing of what has been taking place of late, if we imagine that either the 'squire, or the citizen, or the artizan, who now comes up to the altar, or attends his offspring to the font, is a being of the same order as was his father or his grandfather. Are we then satisfied, and do we think that all is well and safe, merely because the 'squire, and the citizen, and the artizan, still bring their bodily presence to church, even though we know, or might know, that, instead of the heartiness and the reverence of the past generation, the bosoms of these men are harbouring contempt, repugnance, or a fixed infidelity?

Amazing inobservance !-if we can suppose that, to the people such as they have actually become, it can avail any thing in the way of moral or religious influence-to frequent church five times in the year-to be christened, confirmed, married, in due form;—to receive the sacrament at the last exigency, and to be buried as believers. The nation has gone beyond the power of these forms. The Parish Church stands

where it did; but the mind of the country has escaped from between the sacred walls. Not universally indeed; far otherwise:-we are speaking, not of the passive and sluggish portion of the community; but of the active, and sensitive, and intelligent-or the half intelligent. And ought the welfare of such to be a matter of no solicitude?

'But even if the slenderest sort of conformity were all that we cared for, the course we pursue is very little adapted to secure it. What are the simple facts?--In the hearing of the people the original defects of the national forms, and the abuses that have grown upon the establishment, have lately been talked of with the utmost freedom.-The people have listened, while men, the best informed, and the most moderate (not the enemies of the Church, but its friends) have confessed the necessity of revision-have implored attention to the great question from those who should first take it in hand.-But all this discussion, all these entreaties come to nothing! Nothing may be hoped for. Pertinacity is to have its triumph-perilous triumph! It is a point of honour to spurn amendment. To change an iota would be to acknowledge that the Fathers of the English Church were not inspiredwere somewhat inferior to the Apostles. That which indeed is venerable and good in the national forms and modes (and it is much) must be put in peril for the sake of enforcing from the people an irrational homage to certain excrescences, which all men inwardly abhor! Such are the infatuations that control human affairs!' pp. 85-89.

But it is loudly asked in another quarter-Whether the intelligent thousands of the English people might not do better, or have not an alternative, beside that of bowing to infidelity, or of cringing to an establishment which will listen to no reproofs ?-Difficult question! or difficult unless we are willing, and able, fairly to place ourselves for a moment in the position of the persons of whom we are speaking-the intelligent, yet imperfectly informed, and irreligious, of all ranks. If from that position we look abroad upon the many-coloured array of our religious parties, we shall instantly cease to wonder that Christianity in England has as little reason to boast of extensive triumphs under its simplest, as in its most elaborate forms. The grand mischief whenever we are endeavouring to assail the prejudices of others is this— that we do not, or will not, consider the light in which ourselves, and our attempts, appear to them. It is too much to expect that our uninformed neighbours, or our countrymen at large, should make themselves conversant with that prodigious mass of theological and historical lore which must be known before any one can fully and fairly appreciate the justificatory argument of each of our sects. To exculpate each-to respect each, a man must be familiar with the circumstances of the times wherein it originated; he must be master of the merits of many entangled controversies, and must fairly and calmly estimate the mutual influence of sect upon sect. Not a whit less labour and diligence is necessary for correctly measuring the respective claims of religious parties, than would make a man erudite in the most multifarious of the sciences. -Nothing of this sort can reasonably be looked for.

Meanwhile the intelligent, and the half-intelligent-the few who are thoroughly well informed on all subjects-except religion ;--and

the myriads who now know something of many sciences, but nothing of this, can hardly be blamed if they take up a notion which, though substantially false, is apparently rational. Such persons (lamentable case!) are impelled to suppose, either that Christianity is so indeterminate a system that its most careful and serious adherents are unable to fix its meaning, and therefore that it is well to keep clear altogether of the anxious perplexities it involves; or-that, by some fatality, it breeds a spirit of trivial scrupulosity, productive of interminable discords. It will be, for the most part, utterly in vain to assure such misjudging spectators that their idea of the religious parties is incorrect and distorted. The ostensible fact will outweigh all explanations.

Thus it is that the souls of men are sported with on all sides! How little do we consider the infinite mischiefs we occasion when we give indulgence to SMALL MOTIVES in matters of religion !-Would to God that, at length, good men might learn to calculate all the consequences-remote and distant perhaps, but immensely important,-of that theological and ecclesiastical inflexibility, by which they think to prove their loyalty to Christ! Alas, those for whom Christ died are fixed in unbelief by the spectacle of this same immovable purity!

A candid review of the entire course of Church history must convince any one, that very high degrees of personal piety and virtue— piety and virtue even of the most exalted order, often consist with a participation in egregious errors, of that sort which attaches more to a body or community at large, than to individuals. This truth has been lost sight of in every age; and in our own times. For example; while we know by personal consciousness, and by happy fellowship with others, that Christianity exists among us in much vigour and purity, and is bringing forth its fruits in all quarters of the land, we repel indignantly the supposition that the entire Christian body may be capitally in fault. And yet, were not the Jansenists, and the men of Port Royal Christians? Were not Pascal and Fenelon men of God? Well were it, if we could now match them in elevation, devotedness, spirituality. Nevertheless, did they not stand forth as the zealous (not the passive) adherents of their Meretricious and Idolatrous Church? and in every age that same Church-collectively abominable

*Our sects (the principal of them) are the product of the same era that gave us our Establishment: and the one form of Christianity is just the antithesis of the other. If the advancement of society in the course of three centuries renders a revision of the one indispensable; so does it of the other. Rocked by the winds of discord in the same cradle, though always at variance, Dissent and Conformity are alike antique; and while both happily comprise the great and unchanging verities of the Gospel, both are what times and men have made them. The dissident loudly speaks of this obsolete character of the Church. But impartial men will be apt to think that, if we ought now to see something better, or more mature, than was thought of, or could be effected, by Cranmer, Jewel, Hooker; a like revision should take place of the notions and institutions of Brown, Prynne, and Owen.