body, upon a declaration of their faith and their regeneration. The sentiments of the pastors and the progress of religion were here watched with a jealous eye. Meetings for prayer and religious conference, both in the places of worship and at private houses, fanned the flame of religion where it existed, and kept alive a zeal for its diffusion in the world. In many of these churches, the pure and faithful preaching of the unsearchable riches of Christ was attended with such displays of the divine power and blessing, as constantly increased their numbers and their religion. Those of their members who are still living, acknowledge, indeed, with gratitude, that the present zeal of the churches for the propagation of the Gospel is far superior to any thing they ever witnessed in early life; but still they look back with regret at former days, when they saw the success of the Gospel by the labours of those whom they first heard with edification and delight.

In London, not a few churches were then increasing as rapidly as they have since decayed. It would be easy to mention the names of ministers which are still dear to the hearts of those who duly appreciate fidelity and usefulness in the church of Christ. Nor would it be difficult to point to those churches in the country, where very considerable revivals attested the divine approbation on the labours of the pastor. The late publication of some volumes of sermons by Mr. Lavington, of Bideford, furnishes a specimen of the kind of preaching which many dissenting churches enjoyed at the commencement of the present reign, and those who have watched the effects of sentiments, will acknowledge that the hearers of such sermons were likely to have been worthy successors to the first puritans,

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Many letters written by Christians at the commencement of the present reign, though not published, contain so much instruction and devotion, as to fill the mind with a high esteem for the generation which is just gone down to the dust. In these, indeed, as well as in the sermons of the same period, there is a more rigid attention to form and method than would suit the present fashion of the churches. But if they were tardy in yielding to the taste of others, it was often because they had thought more for themselves. Their closets were kept warmer than those of many modern Christians. In these secret retirements, the elder generation read the Scriptures, meditated, and prayed with such effect, that they were entitled to retain with some firmness what they had acquired with so much diligence. They had not so frequent social meetings in the church as at present; but they had more religion at home, where their superior knowledge of the Scriptures and of theology enabled them to conduct devotional services to greater advantage. If, in public worship, the performances were less animated than those of modern preachers, there was more to inform the judgment and preserve the mind from the aberrations of falsehood, or enthusiasm, which too often produce a motion like that of the " troubled sea whose waters cast up mire and dirt." It would be difficult to bring Christians now to listen to those enlarged and correct statements of theological truth, which ministers were then encouraged to give; nor would the exact, laboured expositions of the Scriptures which were common at the commencement be endured at the close of this period. It is at present necessary to, vary, to embellish, to enliven public instruction, in

every way, in order to suit the more volatile turn of the public mind.

If, however, there be some portion of juvenile conceit in the contempt that is now poured upon the cold regularity of our fathers, it must be admitted that they were not without their share of senile obstinacy, which often adhered to practices because they were old, and condemned too indiscriminately the rising spirit which they should sometimes have welcomed. A dread of methodistic practices and spirit was the hydrophobia of many excellent men, whose usefulness was thereby considerably impeded.

The particular were to the general baptists, what the independents were to the presbyterians: they held fast their principles, and proved their efficacy in many flourishing churches. The character given of the independents would, indeed, exactly apply to the calvinistic baptists, with these exceptions, that the latter had a greater number of uneducated preachers, and a stronger tendency to the high calvinism of Dr. Gill, whose writings were rising to great repute with his own denomination. Among the general baptists a less evangelical arminianism than that which forms the system of Wesleyan methodists was leading its votaries into arian coldness and socinian indifference, though there were some happy instances in which the ancient sentiments and spirit of this body were preserved. The quakers were in the first half of this period nearly in the same state as during the whole of the former, except that the wealth for which they have become almost proverbial, rapidly increased, while the number of their speakers, and of course the life and efficiency of the public worship, proportionably diminished.

At the commencement of the present reign a peculiar class of dissenters had so much influence on the state of religion as to deserve special notice. These were converts from the world, by means of dissenting or methodistic preaching, who imperceptibly adopted dissenting principles and practices, while their spirit was that of calvinistic methodists. Among these may be reckoned also, some who became acquainted with the Gospel by means of evangelical clergymen. Many ministers who left lady Huntingdon's connection, increased this species of dissenters. With the fire and freshness of their former communion, they brought with them also a laudable preference for that style of preaching which gave prominence to the truths most likely to awaken the careless and increase the church from the world. On the other hand, some of them were at first deficient in those effects of good education, a correct deportmeut, eminent family religion, theological wealth, and accurate sentiments, in which the more regular dissenters excelled. They were irregular troops, but they often brought home more captives than the disciplined squadrons. That they were upon the whole eminently serviceable to the cause of real religion among the dissenters, cannot be denied. In many instances, they seemed to pour young blood into a body exhausted with age. Among them were bred several of the more useful dissenters of the present day, who rose up with growing attachment to dissenting principles, and with such zeal for the interests of religion, as was peculiarly acceptable to the Redeemer, and useful to the communion to which they belonged. This class deserves high praise for having warmly patronized the modern schemes for the diffusion of divine truth.

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That new class of separatists from the establishment, avowed methodists, who are now grown into so much importance, maintained, during the former part of this period, the original neutrality between church and meeting. Confined principally to the poorer classes of society, they went on silently doing much good and suffering much evil. The calvinistic methodists, though deprived of Whitefield, about the middle of the present reign, enjoyed the labours of other men of apostolic spirit, who, with great simplicity and self-denial, laboured incessantly to exalt the Saviour and recommend him to the hearts of men; while the divine influence crowned their efforts, and rendered them eminent blessings to the world, in which they were unknown or despised. But the tendency to hyper-calvinism, which was the bitter, fruit of their controversy with the arminians, too frequently appeared in their preaching, and threw suspicions upon all addresses to sinners and exhortations to moral duties. The desultory style of public instruction, the absence of expositions of the Scriptures, the frequent neglect of family worship and of pastoral inspection, all contributed to render the calvinistic methodists a more easy prey to the bastard species of calvinism. A pure attachment, however, to the genuine honours of divine grace, nourished by the works of the puritans and eminent dissenters, which were in high repute with this communion, powerfully checked their faults and increased their evangelical virtues.

The Wesleyan methodists were at this period, so intirely under the influence of the founder of the sect, that they suffered no change of their original. character. Mr. Wesley, who was the animating soul.