of the society, kept alive their attachment to the mother church and suspicions of the dissenters, as well as preserved their purity of moral character and simplicity of appearance; while he was himself outstripped in the career of propagation by some of his preachers, who sprang up in humble life, and to whom he could not impart his own literary or intellectual advantages.

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The first half of the reign of George the third presents a chequered scene, of which it is difficult to say, whether the dark or the bright spots predominate. The tendency to departure from the truth among the original dissenters, had not yet been opposed with sufficient talent and earnestness; nor had the solicitude to extend the kingdom of Christ, which has distinguished dissenters in the present day, been duly manifested. The sin of this period was denounced by the prophet, when he said, "cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, or negligently." Too many ministers and other public persons resembled musical instruments, the strings of which were never strained to the proper pitch, so that all their performances filled the mind with a conviction, that they had not thought it worth while to do their best. There were, however, some happy intimations of the rising spirit of benevolence and energy which has rendered the close of this period so auspicious to the best interests of mankind.``

The unlawful truce with error, which was too long the sin of many dissenters, and which did more mischief than any form of warfare, was broken about the middle of the present reign. To Dr. Priestley must' be attributed, in a great degree, the violation of the

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unholy league; for if the orthodox owe him no thanks or praise for any intentional services, many of them learned from him that decisive declaration of sentiments and solicitude for their diffusion, which they ought to have learned from a different teacher. With a very just and inviolable attachment to liberty of opinion, unfettered by interference of the civil power, he displayed in advancing life a zeal for his peculiar principles which broke all terms with those who opposed his creed.

Socinianism having now dropped the mask of candour, and avowed its hostility to almost all that was dear to thousands, they startled at the horrors of her visage, and fled from temporising commerce to avowed hostility. Arians, holding the pre-existence of Christ, and ascribing to him a sort of divinity, had employed language which often deceived the orthodox; but the open degradation of Christ to the rank of a mere man, the denial of his miraculous conception, atonement, and even infallible wisdom, shocked and alarmed all who had sincerely joined with Thomas to say to him," my Lord and my God." When, to support these errors, whole sections of the Scriptures were swept away with contemptuous rejection, those who believed that "all Scripture was given by inspiration of God," could see in unitarianism nothing but deism baptised with the Christian name, in order to carry the ancient war into the heart of the church.

As the death of Christ was admitted by arians to be of some importance to a Christian's hopes of forgiveness, it was not always easy to perceive that they did not admit a proper atonement for sin; so that they who built their hopes of acceptance on his obedi

ence unto death, flattered themselves that those with whom they held communion were partakers of the same grace. But the honest avowal of Dr. Priestley and his followers, that their own virtues were the foundation of their eternal hopes, drove from them all who felt that, having "sinned and come short of the glory of God, they must be justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The denial of divine influences on the mind, naturally led to such forms of devotion as could not suit those who came to the throne of grace to ask not only mercy, but “ grace to help in time of need.” While each party was thus driven from the other, and the two camps were ranged at due distance, under their proper colours, Dr. Priestley's zeal exposed the folly of the orthodox in being induced by the sounds of charity, candour, and forbearance to tolerate fatal errors; for they saw him charitably pronounce believers in the Trinity and deity of Christ tritheists and idolators, candidly avow that unitarians were the only rational dissenters, and with much forbearance express his pity for the ignorance and bigotry of those who adhered to the horrible doctrines of calvinism. From this time dissenters ceased to seek an equivocal middle course; for they saw that there was no neutral ground for any one to stand upon. Arians were no longer invited to preach to calvinists, nor calvinists to arians; the adherents of one system were not found in communion with those of another, nor did the county associations present a heterogeneous mixture of creeds and principles and characters. Now if the two parties met on public occasions to petition the legislature for the repeal of the test laws, or the abolition of the slave trade, it was with the

éxplicit avowal that, on the same principles they could unite with Roman catholics, to seek their common rights as citizens of the state, or to promote the interests of the great family of man.

This decided change was highly advantageous to the cause of evangelical religion. Its friends, disentangled from those with whom they could never cordially co-operate, and who hung upon them as a dead weight, began now to contend strenuously for truth, which becoming more dear to them by the contest, they sought more earnestly to diffuse through the world. Energy and warmth, which had too long been wanting, were now imparted to their public services. They laboured to defend calvinism in the most effectual way, by a display of the true condition of man, which renders the stupendous work of redemption essential to the hope of salvation.

To this decision of mind in the friends of evangelical truth, the character of its enemies powerfully contributed. The tendencies of the new system became every day more painfully manifest in the sceptical coldness of its disciples, and their entire conformity to the spirit and manners of the world. For with the faith, they shook off the practices of the first founders of the dissent. The morality of the Sabbath was denied, and visiting on that day grew into fashion among wide dissenters. Theatres were represented as innocent scenes of amusement, and the card table, warmly recommended by Dr. Priestley's own example, was the constant resort of those who were withdrawn from the closet and from meetings for prayer by the denial of divine influences, which alone can render prayer a reasonable service. The complete amalgamation with the world, which pre

vailed among the presbyterians, formed a disgraceful exception to the general truth of the remark, that the dissenters are a religious body. But every day rendered this deduction from their original excellence of character smaller; for while the other denominations were rapidly increasing the desolating effect of error, which has already been noticed, reduced the presbyterians to a very small proportion of the whole. The departure of the Gospel annihilated many congregations, and left the high churchman to insult over their ruined walls, or write upon their closed doors," a meeting-house to let;" while the orthodox dissenter would inscribe," Ichabod, the glory is departed."

The state of religion among the independents, in the latter part of this period, has been eminently prosperous. The zeal for truth, which was awakened by the heresy and consequent ruin of the presbyterians, was, at first, attended with a considerable portion of polemical asperity; but the flame afterwards burned with greater purity, and impelled them not merely to regain from the world more than had been lost to dissent by the apostacy of the erroneous, but to diffuse without regard to sect, the knowledge of Christ to the ends of the earth. This public spirit, which has elevated the character of the independent churches of our day, is so intimately connected with the formation of the missionary society, that it becomes necessary now to direct the attention of the reader to this auspicious event which has created a new era in the religious world.

Elliot, the American apostle to the Indians, had long ago furnished an encouraging example of the success of the Gospel when preached to the most