it would produce such opposite conclusions as must necessarily issue in their forming two or more separate communions. It is remarkable, indeed, that the chief points about which real Christians are divided, are points on which that volume is silent; mere human fabrications, which the presumption of men has attached to the Christian system. A larger communication of the Spirit of truth would insensibly lead Christians into a similar train of thinking; and being more under the guidance of that infallible teacher, they would gradually tend to the same point, and settle in the same conclusions. Without such an influence as this, the coalescing into one communion would probably be productive of much mischief; it certainly would do no sort of good, since it would be the mere result of intolerance and pride, acting upon indolence and fear.

During the present disjointed state of things, then, nothing remains, but for every one to whom the care of any part of the church of Christ is intrusted, to exert himself to the utmost in the promotion of vital religion, in cementing the friendship of the good, and repressing, with a firm and steady hand, the heats and eruptions of party spirit. He will find sufficient employment for his time and his talents, in inculcating the great truths of the gospel, and endeavoring to form Christ' in his hearers, without blowing the flames of contention, or widening that breach which is already the disgrace and calamity of the Christian name. Were our efforts uniformly to take this direction, there would be an identity in the impression made by religious instruction; the distortion of party features would gradually disappear, and Christians would every where approach toward that ideal beauty spoken of by painters, which is combined of the finest lines and traits conspicuous in individual forms. Since they have all drank into the same spirit, it is manifest nothing is wanting, but a larger portion of that spirit, to lay the foundation of a solid, cordial union. It is to the immoderate attachment to secular interest, the love of power, and the want of reverence for truth, not to the obscurities of Revelation, we must impute the unhappy contentions among Christiansmaladies, which nothing can correct, but deep and genuine piety. The true schismatic is not so properly the person who declines a compliance with what he judges to be wrong, though he may be mistaken in that judgement, as the man who, like the author before us, sedulously employs every artifice to alienate the affections of good men from each other.

Having animadverted on the illiberality of this writer toward persons of different persuasions, we now proceed to notice his representations of the state of religion, together with his treatment of

that description of the clergy with whom he has been accustomed to associate.

The cause of religion he represents as in a very declining

state.

'Some persons now living,' he says, can remember the time, when absence from church was far from being so common as it is now become. Then the more considerable heads of families were generally seen in the house of God, with their servants as well as children. This visible acknowledgment of the importance of religion had a good effect on families of inferior condition; the presence of the merchant and his household, brought the tradesman and his family; and the example of the latter, induced his journeymen and out-door servants to come to church. But this is not a description of modern habits. In many pews, once regularly filled by the entire household to which they belonged, it is now common to see only a small portion of the family, and often not an individual. Two or three of the younger branches, from the female side of the house, occasionally attend, with, perhaps, the mother, but without the father and the sons; the father, wearied with business, wants a little relaxation; and to the young men, not suspecting their want of instruction, a rural excursion offers something interesting, while the tranquil service of a church is too tame an occupation for their unexhausted spirits. Nor among the few who attend public worship are they always the same individuals that we see in the house of God. So that it does not appear to be from steady principle, and still less from the influence of parental authority, that some of the family are occasionally there. The children are left to themselves; they may go to church if they choose to do so; they incur no displeasure from the father, they excite no grief in his bosom if they stay away. There is no disreputation attaching to absence. It falls rather upon the contrary conduct; any uniform attendance on divine worship being frequently considered a mark of imbecility, or demureness.

To account for the thinness of our parochial congregations, some allege, that there is not a sufficient quantity of naturally attractive circumstances in the ordinary service of the church. But it is observable, that where our liturgy is used in its grandest form, the attendance is as far from being numerous as it is elsewhere. It might be expected, and especially in an age in which a taste for music so generally prevails, that in a metropolis containing near a million of inhabitants, there might be more persons drawn by the grandeur of cathedral worship, to the place where it is performed, than could well be accommodated in one church. The cathedral of London, however, presents no such scene. With a numerous attendance of ministers, the finest specimens of church music, and these performed with that effect which professional qualification gives to such compositions, the seats at St. Paul's cathedral are seldom half filled.' PP. 2-4.

Though we acknowledge the truth of his statement, in a great measure, we are far from drawing from it the inference he wishes to impress. Whenever places of worship are thinly attended, at least in the Established Church, we have uniformly found it to proceed from a cause very distinct from the general decay of piety; it results from the absence of that sort of instruction which naturally engages the attention and fixes the heart. In one view, we are fully aware a great alteration has taken place; an attachment to the mere forms of religion has much subsided; the superstitious reverence, formerly paid to consecrated places and a pompous ceremonial, has waxed old; so that nothing will now command a full attendance at places set apart for divine worship, but the preaching of the gospel,-or of something, at least, that may be mistaken for it. Instead of concurring with the author in considering this as evincing the low state of Christianity among us, we are disposed to look upon it in a contrary light; being fully convinced that a readiness to acquiesce in the mere forms and ceremonies of religion, to the neglect of that truth which sanctifies the church, is one of the most dangerous errors to which men can be exposed. There is something in the constitution of human nature so abhorrent from the absence of all religion, that we are inclined to believe more are ruined by embracing some counterfeit instead of the true, than by the rejection of true and false altogether. We are not sorry therefore to learn, that the music at St. Paul's is not found a sufficient substitute for the joyful sound,' nor a numerous show of ministers accepted by the people, in the room of Christ crucified set forth before them.' Let the truths which concern men's eternal salvation be faithfully taught in that noble edifice, and the complaint of slender attendance will soon cease. In the mean time, of that part of the citizens who might be expected to frequent the cathedral, some are too gay and fashionable not to prefer the music of the theatre and the opera, and some are serious Christians, whose hunger for the bread of life will not be satisfied or diverted by the symphonies of an organ, or the splendor of canonical dresses.

He who is resolved to see nothing but what grows in his own inclosure, may report that all is barren,' though the fields around him bloomed like the garden of Eden; and such is the strength of this writer's prejudices, that it is morally impossible for him to give a just representation of facts. In forming his estimate of the state of religion, he is resolved to look only where he knows nothing is to be seen; and absurdly complains of the want of a crop, where he is conscious the soil has never been cultivated. Effects must be looked for from their natural causes; men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles, nor are the fruits of

Christianity to be expected in the absence of the gospel. Notwithstanding this writer's gloomy prognostications, we have no doubt of the kingdom of Christ making sensible advances; and in support of this opinion, we adduce the wider extension of religious truth, the multitude of places where the gospel is preached in its purity, the general disposition to attend it, the establishment of Sunday schools, the circulation, with happy effect, of innumerable tracts, the translation of the Scriptures into foreign languages, and their more extensive communication to all nations, the formation of Missionary societies, the growing unanimity among Christians, and the prodigious increase of faithful ministers in the Established Church. We presume these facts may be allowed a degree of weight, sufficient to overbalance the thin attendance at St. Paul's. It is not a little surprising, that a writer, who professes to exhibit a correct idea of the religious state of the nation, should pay no attention to these circumstances, or content himself with alluding to them in terms expressive of chagrin and vexation. Regarding the extensive institutions, and the diffusive benefits, which the efforts of serious Christians in different connexions have produced, as a contraband article, not entitled to be mentioned in the estimate of our moral wealth, he represents us as generally sunk in spiritual sloth and poverty. We should not learn from this writer, that attempts were making for the universal propagation of Christianity, that translations of the Scriptures were going on in different languages, or that a zeal for the conversion of Pagans had occasioned a powerful reaction at home, by producing efforts hitherto unexampled toward carrying the gospel into the darkest corners of the kingdom; we should never suspect, from reading his work, that any material alteration had taken place within the last fifty years, or that new life had been infused into the professing world, beyond what we might conjecture perhaps from certain indirect references, and dark insinuations. Without noticing these facts, he calls upon us to join in pathetic lamentations over the prostrate state of religion, upon no better ground, than the neglect of places of worship where the gospel is not preached, and where there is little to attract attention, beside the privilege of hearing fine music, and seeing fine ministers, for nothing. It is a consolation to us to be convinced, that the state of things is much otherwise than he represents; that more persons are brought acquainted with the glad tidings of the gospel, and more minds penetrated with the concerns of eternity, than at any period since the Reformation.

Thus far we dispute the justice of this author's statement, and are disposed to question the truth of the inference he has drawn from some insulated facts. But this is not the only fault we have

to find with this part of his work. He has not only, in our opinion, been betrayed into erroneous conclusions, but has utterly failed in catching the distinguishing features in the aspect of the times, so that his picture bears no sort of resemblance to the original. He has painted nothing; he has only given an account of a particular distortion or two; so that a foreigner would no more be able, by reading his work, to form an idea of the state of religion in England, than of a countenance he had never seen, by being told its chin was too long, or its nostrils were too wide. It must be evident to every one, that the most striking characteristic of the present times, is the violent, the outrageous opposition that is made to religion by multitudes, and the general disposition in the members of the community to take a decided part. To this circumstance, the writer has never adverted. It is impossible to suppose it could escape his attention; we must therefore impute his silence to the well-weighed dictates of prudence, which admonished him of the possibility of betraying himself into inconveniences by such a discussion; nor need we be surprised, notwithstanding his boasted magnanimity, at his yielding to these suggestions, since his magnanimity is of that sort, which makes a man very ready to insult his brethren, but very careful not to disgust his superiors. As we are happily exempt from these scruples, we shall endeavor, in as few words as possible, to put the reader in possession of our ideas on this subject.

The leading truths of Revelation were all long retained in the church of Rome, but buried under such a mass of absurd opinions and superstitious observances, that they drew but little attention, and exerted a very inconsiderable influence in the practical application of the system. At the Reformation, they were effectually extricated and disengaged from errors with which they had been mingled, were presented in a blaze of light, and formed the basis of our national creed. As it was by pushing them to their legitimate consequences, that the reformers were enabled to achieve the conquest of Popery, they were for a while retained in their purity, and every deviation from them denounced as menacing a revolt to the enemy. The Articles of the church were a real transcript of the principles the reformers were most solicitous to inculcate; and being supported by the mighty impulse which produced the reformation, while that remained fresh and unbroken, they constituted the real faith of the people. Afterwards they underwent an eclipse in the Protestant Church of England, as they had done in the Church of Rome, though from causes somewhat different. The low Arminianism and intolerant bigotry of Laud paved the way for a change, which was not a little aided and advanced by the unbounded licentiousness and profligacy