has been industriously taken of this general tafte for fuperficial reading, to undermine thofe fundamental principles of government, both in church and state, which conftituted in better times a standard for judgment in these matters; by means of those plaufible theories and fpecious arguments, which, by unhinging and unfettling the human mind, are calculated to prepare it for every change.

Against fuch men and their writings it was never perhaps more neceffary to be on our guard than in thefe days; when the right of private judgment and the freedom of enquiry (principles in themselves of unquestionable and excellent ufe, when properly em ́ployed) have been carried to fuch an extent, as in a manner to fet at nought all authority, under the plaufible pretence of delivering mankind from established prejudices.

To form a judgment, indeed, from the systems of fome modern fpeculatifts, which manifest a supercilious inattention to the fober deductions of all who have gone before them, in the walks either of religious or political knowledge, we fhould conclude, that we were newly dropt into a world of yesterday, and had all our experience to learn; or that our forefathers had been fleeping through a long dark night of ig

norance and infenfibility, or at best had been groping their way by a glimmering taper, which had afforded but light fufficient to make their darkness visible; and that we, their more favoured fons, were juft opening our eyes to that dawn of enlightened reafon, which our Creator in his wisdom had thought fit to referve for the more full illumination for the prefent day.

What people are taught to defpife, they will not long be folicitous to preferve. Upon this principle,

it

may be a subject worthy the confideration of those who really mean well to our establishment, whether this imaginary diftinction between the church of CHRIST and church of England now propagating among us be not defigned, by the enemies of the latter, as an introductory step to its wished-for diffolution.

Wife and good men, in difcerning the figns of the times, will learn from them, we truft, a seasonable leffon of prudence and caution.

Should it, however, be the will of that wife Being who directeth all things, (as from the complexion of the times we are occafionally led to fear may be the cafe) that this nation fhould learn a second leffon in that licentious fchool, in which it might be thought that it had remained a length of time fufficient to have received a finished education; it may at least be

hoped that the clergy will not be brought in as acceffary to the judgment.

Be it remembered, that the most common way of wounding the church has been through the fides of its clergy. This method was practifed with fuccefs, when the church of this country poffeffed a most pious and able ministry. We are not therefore to be fur. prised that it fhould be attempted in the prefent day.

But although no argument drawn from the conduct of individuals ought in equity to bear against the body to which they belong; yet when a prejudice once takes poffeffion of the human mind, it is not always in the power of reafon to confine it to the precife object that originally gave rife to it. This confideration fhould make the clergy, of all men, most circumfpect in their conduct; because, as the world will judge, it is in their power to do the greatest injury to the cause, of which they ought to be the most effectual fupporters.

We are told, that "the time is fast approaching, when Christianity will be almost as openly difavowed in the language, as in fact it is already fuppofed to have disappeared from the conduct, of men; when infidelity will be held to be the neceffary appendage of a man of fashion; and to believe will be

K K

deemed the indication of a feeble mind, and a contracted understanding. Should fuch, alas! be the actual condition of this country, the hiftory of the Christian church will fhew what its future condition must be. In fuch case, with lamenting JEREMY We may weep over the fallen "city become as a widow; fhe that was great among the nations, and princefs among the provinces: among all her lovers fhe hath none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none.come to the folemn feafts: all her gates are defolate: her priests figh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adverfaries are the chief; her enemies profper; for the LORD hath afflicted her, for the multitude of her tranfgreffions." Lamentations of JEREMIAH, i. That God, who fpared not the countries where his church was originally planted, but in confequence of their corruption fuffered the light of his truth to depart from them, will moft affuredly not fpare this country under fimilar circumstances. When the purpose for which the church has been established is not answered, it will not long be fuffered to mock the design of its Divine Founder. In the prophetic language, when the vine

WILBERFORCE, P. 375.

yard which God has enclosed shall cease to be duly cultivated; and the vine be suffered to take its wild and natural growth; the hedge by which it had been separated from the waste will be pulled down; and the boar out of the wood, and the wild beaft of the field, be permitted to devour it. Some anti-chriftian power, intent upon nothing but plunder and destruction, or a domestic enemy having the fame object in view, will fooner or later be let loose upon a church when in this degenerate condition, and become the inftrument of executing upon her the vengeance due to her crimes. May GoD give the people of this nation fuch a fight of their danger, as may tend effectually to guard them against it!

Indifpofed, as I think I am, to superstition and enthusiasm, the prefent events of Europe are nevertheless of so awful and alarming a kind, as to affect me with the moft ferious and interefting concern. Upon the authority of facred writ we are affured, that the time must come when "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of GoD and of his CHRIST." That Being "who feeth the end from the beginning;" before whom all nations are as nothing, yea, less than nothing;" will make human policy fubfervient to the accomplishment of his wife