manifold societies of temporal and spiritual good; the Lord's day a day of eternal blessings; the poor and the children of the poor gathered to the service of their common Saviour; and prayer and praises echoed by thousands, who had otherwise remained in darkness irremediable as the uncultivated ranger of the Indian wilds. If the extent of ignorance be even now so lamentable, what would it be with the removal of this light?

Here let me speak boldly as I ought to speak.-I view in the vast congregation now before me, far more than a thousand of my poorer brethren. Will not many of you acknowledge, that, prior to the erection of this sacred edifice, you were living without God in the world, in habits of soul-destructive ignorance. and sin? Some of you are now the most diligent attendants at the ordinances of Christ; and may I not hope that there are some who are truly sanctified by faith that is in Him? To you I refer as evidence of the divine blessing upon the ministry of the Establishment in the most defective hands.-Remember ye then; none sought you out; no house could open its doors to take you in, but the Establishment. Mark also, the contrast between this and voluntary efforts. Some twenty years ago, private piety, with much labour and extraneous aid, erected a Church in this town, with about one thousand free kneelings. In the vast lapse of years, this was the solitary attempt made here; and this exceeds what was done in most other places. Within the short space of seven years, the Establishment supplied us with upwards of six thousand free kneelings; and most of these in the most valuable part of the edifice, truly placing rich and poor on a level. searcely a populous place adjacent that reaped the like benefit in some degree.*

There is has not By state

I refer to the following places, within twelve miles of Birmingham, where free kneelings have been supplied to a greater or

aid, one hundred and thirty thousand free kneelings have been supplied to the kingdom; and by voluntary efforts one hundred and seventy thousand more ; and all this within the short compass of ten years. It is as the opening of a vast vineyard of the Lord, hitherto comparatively closed. Would this have been done in any other way? All experience answers, No-Could it have been done by the Church, if unestablished? if the preservation of its noble fabrics, with the parochial secular expences entailed upon it, in addition to those of its ordinances, had been thrown upon voluntary benevolence? The reply is obvious, because the facts are so.-Within this short period, three hundred thousand free kneelings are already furnished. In the Schools of the Church, nine hundred thousand poor children are now being educated; which is nearly one-half of the number needing such education.* Should she be still supported by the blessing of God, (who will, however, dispose of her as His wisdom may see fit) a few years would probably witness her doors open to the extent of the whole people of the land: those would be no longer excommunicated to whom the Gospel was especially to be preached: a pastor would be fixed in every district adequately limited; and such facilities would be bestowed for the furtherance of true religion, abroad and at home, as no nation hath yet beheld. Whether these holy results, which are clearly obvious results of the system,-flow from the inspiration of God, or from some opposite source, judge ye.

Nor let me be thought to imply reproach to others. What zeal could do in voluntary efforts, smaller extent: Harborne, Handsworth, West Bromwich, Erdington, Moseley, Shirley, Walsall, Wednesbury, Wolverhampton, Netherton, Bilston, Coseley, &c.

*See Report of Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, 1832.

many nonconforming congregations have done and those most especially whom I should not call Dissenters; who yet allow themselves to be branches of the Establishment, and disown no part of her constitution ;-I need not name the Methodists. To them nothing is wanted except the means. But are generations of immortal beings to glide unheeded into eternity; "until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high," to turn the hearts of all to seek the Lord? The Establishment is an engine to convert much of the "mammon of unrighteousness" to the securing "everlasting habitations" for many destitute; employing in the cause of truth much that would otherwise rust in corruption, or be exerted in the cause of evil.*

That sad hour which should destroy the Establishment would utterly extinguish the light of truth to thousands. A National Church is bound, as far as may be, to provide instruction and grace for those who are not able to procure it for themselves. Overthrow it, and that is overthrown upon which the claims of the people are irresistible. Whoever hath an interest in its destruction, the poor have the deepest interest in its perpetuity and support. I cannot believe in the pious zeal of this or any age to compensate the loss. The hand would be a daring one to make the experiment. The Sabbath would indeed return, but not with its present mercies. It would be, as in vast districts of the United States of America it is; where it brings not the delight and joy which all may here partake: for year by year passes on, and the ministry and ordinances of Christ come not.-The door of many a faithful parish pas

"If no coercive power were admitted, it is probable, that covetousness would drive many into dissenting parties, in order to save their tithes, or other possessions. So that none can reasonably blame a government for requiring such general contributions." This is the candid remark of Dr. Doddridge, lecture 87.

tor would be closed, where a resource has always been open for misery, and counsel and advice for difficulty. The first place to which the poor resort, as they ought, in perplexity and distress, are the houses of the clergy and there relief is seldom withheld to the extent of their means; and very often afforded, I speak advisedly, beyond their means.

There are some who talk of the revenues of the Church, as partly belonging to the poor. Untrue as this is, let but the State restore to the Church what the unprincipled avarice of former days seized for private aggrandizement, and she may willingly take charge of all. But to appropriate a portion of the revenues of a Church, which, to use the words of a great patriot statesman, "hath, God bless it, but a poor pittance,' ,"* and which is quite unable to afford subsistence to its present ministers, much less to meet the wants of the population;-this might, no doubt, lighten, in a slender degree, the rates from the shoulders of the rich, but would leave the poor far more wretched, and the state burthens far heavier, than it found them. Who, in fact, would profit, save a few wretched persons, to revel their transitory hour in the plundered piety of better men? This is no theory. For thus it was in England at the Reformation; in France at the Revolution. In each country, indeed, the Establishment was corrupt in its vitals, and overflowing with wealth. But, instead of reforming and preserving its endowments for their sacred purpose, they were seized, under pretence of benefiting the poor. Did it benefit them? Let history answer the question; and it will proclaim this everlasting truth, that, as the welfare of the poor is among the most sacred objects of true religion, it will never be furthered by the promoters or the gains of sacrilegious robbery of the heritage of God.

Earl of Chatham.

IV. The page of history hath been ransacked to speak evil of the Church of England. That she hath erred, by persecution and intolerance in former days, is as true of her as it is of every sect of Protestants; who, issuing from the fiery furnace of Rome, long retained the smell of fire upon them. But, as the present Dissenters might justly account it bigotry to charge them with the persecution of the Church and of rival sects by their forefathers: we may esteem it equally so, to encounter a similar wretched accusation. It cannot be denied, that the most glorious periods of our annals are identified with the honour of the Church. For the delivery of this realm from darkness and despotism, we are indebted, not to the nobles, not to the people, but to the Bishops and Clergy. The burning stake and the martyrs' blood were the first fruits of the Church to the cause of civil and religious freedom. Cranmer,

Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, and their coadjutors; these were the men whose sufferings wrested, from the iron grasp of papal tyranny, that liberty wherewith many rage against her who bought it for them. At a much later period, when James II. influenced by the same organized foe to truth and conscience, would have trampled all law and right beneath his feet, by whom was he withstood? Not by the parliament, not by the people. They yielded every privilege unto him. The Bishops and Clergy, they again stood alone: alone had courage to resist arbitrary power, and sustain their oaths. No interest was at

stake, but that of conscience. To their resistance we owe the Constitution, under whose wings we have long been sheltered;-to the resistance of men. who afterwards exchanged rank and wealth for poverty and persecution, sooner than violate their aÎlegiance to the prince whose tyranny they alone had courage to oppose.