forcing them to become non-conformists, by rendering their communion with the church incompatible with their circumftances. In which cafe, we must not be surprised, if the body of the people fhould feel uninterested for the prefervation of an establishment, which feems to take fo little concern about them. '

The confequences of fuch a ruinous practice are incalculable; and never more to be dreaded than in thefe times, when the licentious doctrines of equality and confequent infubordination are industriously propagated; doctrines, which a plan of religious worship feparating the rich from the poor feems peculiarly calculated to promote.

There is indeed an equality, by which all Christians ftand connected with each other, as children of the fame heavenly Father; which ought as much as poffible to be kept alive among us in all religious affemblies. A church therefore never looks fo much like what it ought to be, as when all ranks of people join together in these general acts of worship, which are expreffive of their general dependence upon that

LORD over all, who, in one fenfe or another, is rich unto all who call upon him." The GoD whom we worship is no refpecter of perfons; the church, be confiftent with order and decency, to keep this in

view; that the rich, from this indistinctive plan of worship, may continually be taught to remember that the poor man is his brother; and that the poor man may be supported in the confcientious discharge of his humbie and laborious duties in life, by looking forward to the day, when all worldly distinctions will be fwallowed up in that common relationship, which all true members of the church will then bear to CHRIST its head.

Sorry we are to think, that the doctrines which have long been induftrioufly circulated, and which have produced too fuccefsful an effect upon the minds of the people of this country, are inimical to government in any shape. The very name of an eftablishment in thefe days, as it implies fome reftraint upon liberty, conveys to the ears of many an unwelcome found. Separated from the errors and freed from the chains of Popery, we feem, alas! (to make use of the words of a great writer) to be " breaking out into a state of religious anarchy." An attention, therefore, to the fubject before us becomes a matter of most important concern.

We do not profefs ourselves to be in the number of those, if there be any fuch, who think that there is nothing amifs amongst us; for this would be to lay

claim to that perfection which belongs not to man. At the fame time, in reference to the present state of things in the world, it may be proper to fuggest to the reader, the great danger of his being too readily impreffed with the idea of improvement, either in church or ftate. There are no two words in the English language, the found of which, from the use that has been lately made of them, conveys fo ftrong a fenfe of alarm to the thinking mind, as those of liberty and reformation. Things most valuable in themselves become most destructive in their abuse. We have lived to fee, what we should not otherwise have believed, the giants of infidelity waging open war against heaven; falfe philofophers, under the fpecious pretence of diffusing light and liberty through a benighted and enflaved world, engaged in a more daring league of fyftematic oppofition to the plans of Divine Providence for the benefit of mankind, than has been ever witneffed. It is with a mixture of horror and indignation, that we look back to the fcenes, which these ministers of rebellious darkness have been permitted to bring forth; it is with awe and trembling, we look forward to what may, in the Divine Council, be the winding up of this eventful tragedy.

It is fome confolation, indeed, to thofe who are humbly waiting for their LORD's coming, to think, that the gates of hell fhall not finally prevail against his church. At the fame time it fhould feem, as if "woe had been pronounced against the inhabitants of the earth and of the fea; and that the Devil was come down unto them, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a fhort time." Rev. xii. 12.

From the chapter which modern history presents to our perufal, we feel confident in the affertion, that even the most corrupt religion is to be preferred to no religion at all; and that where reformation is really wanted, it is not to be effected by means which tend to the diffolution of conftituted authority: Whilft from the plan, which has been adopted for the purpose of enabling infidelity to triumph over the Christian cause, we hesitate not to affirm, that the preservation of our establishment is essential to the continuance of the church in this country; it being the best security against that Babel of religious confufion and confequent infidelity, which would be the ultimate effect of its deftruction. An establishment is to be regarded as the out-work of religion. The enemy who pulls it down, does it but with a view to

the more complete deftruction of the citadel which it was defigned to secure.

Some well-meaning people, indeed, have found a way of fatisfying themselves upon this head, by making the church of CHRIST and church of England mean two different things: and thus, while they flatter themselves that they are acting upon the best principle, they are putting themselves into a state of preparation to become inftrumental in the deftruction of that church of which they profefs themselves members. That ignorant people fhould be carried away with fo plaufible an idea, can be no matter of furprise; they have been, and always will be, impofed upon by founds. But that men of reading and education fhould adopt it, affords one proof among many, that experience does not always furnish wisdom.

It must be confeffed, indeed, that the age in which we live, though a reading, is certainly not a learned, age. Light publications of the day, calculated for the purpose of present entertainment, and fuperficial information, are preferred to the fcientific pages of the learned, though lefs amufing writer, which require abstraction of thought and intenfenefs of application to make them yield fruit to the reader. Advantage therefore, which we frequent, ought, as far as may