the clergy of the prefent day do not, I conceive, ftand in the fame predicament.

1

Doctrinal points, it fhall be admitted, are not fo often, nor fo powerfully, enforced in our pulpits as they once were, or as they ought to be; but I do not recollect having ever heard a fermon which, in fair conftruction, placed man's hopes of happiness upon the unfound ground of his own moral performances. Indeed I am inclined to hope that the generality of hearers, in the present day, poffefs no relish for fuch heathenifh doctrine. There is a wide dif férence, it will be allowed, between powerfully enforcing a fundamental article of the Christian faith, and preaching a doctrine incompatible with it. However deficient fome of our clergy may have been in the former cafe, inftances, I truft, are very rare of their being found guilty in the latter; thereby proving themselves declared traitors to the cause they have in charge to maintain.

It is not confiftent with candour, from incautious language occafionally made ufe of, (and what man is always fo guarded in his expreffions, as to bid defiance to misconstruction?) to draw those conclufions either for an author or a speaker, which they themfelves do not acknowledge. If, therefore, the fubject

of CHRIST crucified be not always taken up in our pulpits, yet when it is confidered that the fermon is accompanied with a liturgy, which preaches that. faving doctrine throughout; charity forbids me to conclude, unless upon very evident ground, that it is the defign of the preacher to place the Christian's hope upon any other foundation.

May it not happen, then, that judgment in this cafe has fometimes been too haftily formed? A perfon, for inftance, who entertains the unfavourable idea here alluded to, respecting our clergy, enters a church with a certain prejudice in his mind: and should it fo happen, that the object of the preacher's discourse is the enforcement of fome practical duty of Christianity, he leaves the church in disgust, with the conclufion that nothing but moral preaching is to be heard in it. He attends, it may be, fome irregular place of worship in the evening, where the fundamental doctrine of the cross happens to be the fubject of the preacher's discourse; he goes away confirmed in the conclufion drawn in the morning; and the clergy of the church are, in consequence, unequivocally condemned. Whereas, had this fame perfon attended the fame church the following Sunday, he might have heard the fame minister, perhaps, who on

the preceding Sunday had taken up a practical duty of Christianity into the pulpit, now enforcing that fame doctrine of the crofs, which had given the preaching of the conventicle the decided preference in his mind.

Now would this perfon, before he pronounces fentence in this cafe, but confider, that it is the duty of a Christian minifter, not to dwell altogether on the fundamental truths of religion; but alfo (to make ufe of our author's words) " to trace and lay open all the fecret motions of inward corruption, and to inftruct his hearers, how best to conduct themselves in every distinct part of the Christian warfare; how best to strive against each particular vice, and to cultivate each grace of the Christian character;" he would conclude, that this could not otherwise be done, than by dedicating a confiderable portion of his public instructions to the due enforcement of the practical duties of Christianity; that the man of GOD may "become perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work." In doing this, if the clergy are not to have credit given them for preaching morality upon a Chriftian plan, they are placed in that unfortunate fituation, as not to have it in their power to discharge their office to the fatisfaction either of themselves or their hearers.

It is fubmited, therefore, to the candour of this author, whether in his laudable zeal for the promotion of the Christian cause, the description which he has given of the prefent clergy of our church be not too strong: whether, taking them as a body, (and all judgments drawn from individuals, when generally applied, are most liable to error)" the actual principles of the clergy of the establishment can be faid to be extremely different from thofe which it profeffes."* Whether, when there are fo many ftriking teftimonies to the contrary to be produced from the writings of modern divines, it can be faid with truth, that "the peculiar doctrines of Christianity have almost altoge ther vanished from their view;" and that the fer, mons in our churches contain no other traces of these peculiarties, either directly or indirectly, fave what may be derived from the ordinary form with which they conclude; which, in the author's words, may juft ferve to protect them from falling into entire oblivion."‡

"Is there then no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" Jer. viii. 22. "Are all the paf

• WILBERFORCE'S Practical View, p, 408. Ibid. p. 384.

+ Ibid. p.383❤

tors become brutish, neglecting to feek the LORD; and is the judgment paffed upon them, that therefore they shall not profper, and that all their flocks fhall be scattered?" Jer. x. 21. GOD forbid!

Had the foregoing defcription of the actual state of things in our church, fallen from the pen of a writer, of whofe Christian character any doubt could be entertained, it might have been confidered an intentional libel upon the clergy of the establishment. But seeing the writer in the light in which I wish to fee him, it is regarded as the overflowing of an honest zeal, in a cause in which every Christian must be supposed to feel. And I fhall only hope, for the credit of my brethren, that the drawer of the above picture will, upon a further acquaintance with them, judge it to be confiderably overcharged.

The fatal confequences attendant upon the extinction of vital Christianity, cannot be contemplated but with the greatest concern; because the Christian religion provides the beft fecurity for man's happiness in every stage of his existence, having "the promise of the life that now is, not lefs than of that which is to come." Taking the subject, therefore, in no higher point of view, a regard to our political welfare must lead every thinking mind feriously to deprecate the