a few, but is shared in certain propor tions among all the members; which is the case in most of the religious societies under consideration. Let it be remem

bered then, that if religion increase in this way, there is that increasing with it which is not religion: there is something springing up with it, which is of a different nature; and which will be sure to stand, whether that better thing with which it may grow, do or not. Every new licence taken out for a dissenting place of worship, is a warrant for setting' up an institution which though it have the increase of piety only for for its object, will have a civil operation: it will "lessen the number of those who approve of that political arrangement which at present exists, and which provides every parish in the kingdom, with a church for the performance of religious worship, and a clergyman to administer God's word and sacraments."

The remarks we have quoted display ignorance in the extreme, respecting the principles of protestant dissenters, and of the primitive christians. Will this or any other high church writer have the effrontery to deny, that the primitive churches were, in their purest state, congregational, and that their teachers were chosen solely by the popular voice? Or will they affirm that our Saviour, his apostles and disciples, although firm dissenters from the established church of their day, were enemics to the state, or to monarchical government? The kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of this world; and christians, considered merely as such, have nothing to do with forms of civil government; it being their duty to obey that form, "the ordinance of man," which may be, in any country, constituted and established by the will of the people. As citizens of their country they have a just claim to the rights of citizens; and every disqualification for civil office, merely on account of their religious opinions, or mode of worship is equally irrational, and unscriptural, The same "political arrangement which provides every parish in the kingdom, with a

"church and a clergyman,” provides a license for protestant dissenters of every sect. As far as the authority of the law could go in point tection, as was justly observed by Mr. Speaker, Onslow, "the dissenters are as truly established, as "the church of England; and an "established church,as distinguished from their places of worship, is pro

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perly speaking, only an endowed "church." The assertion therefore that the principles of dissenters tend to the overthrow of the monarchical part of our political constitution, is as false, and as unconstitutional as it is malignant.

After such a declaration, our readers will not be surprised that the author should proceed to a formal attack on the Toleration Act, and to threaten its repeal: previous to which, however, he, as usual on such occasions, professes, with what sincerity we leave others to judge, to contemplate with heartfelt satisfaction the spirit of an act, the let ter of which he hopes will be obliterated. On this part of the subject we have the following observations.

The author is free to own that he

derives no pleasure from seeing the Act of Toleration applied to a purpose for which it was never intended." It was intended to give relief to conscientious minds; and for that it does honour to the wisdom as well as humanity of the age in which it was passed. To see it however turned to another kind of purdose, that is to make Dissenters, not merely to satisfy those who are already such; to see it employed as an engine against that church, which by its legislative representatives consented to this benign law; these abuses of the intention of the legislature he cannot view without regretting that they were not provided against; which no doubt they would have been by them who framed and passed the act had they been fore seen. This regret is heightened by a fear, that the present wanton abuse of the act of toleration, may provoke such an emendation of it, as may be attended with great danger to liberty, and little benefit to religion. Let them who can

against the civil and religious rights of men, abundantly demonstrated, that she has been made drunk with the wine of the fornication, of the grand apostate church of Rome. She will, therefore, unless prevented by reform, most assuredly experience the fate of so many of her established sister churches of Christendom. Are the clerical body resolved to shut their eyes to the fulfilment of scripture prophecies? Can ye not discern the signs of the times?

It is not only dissenters in general, but one class in particular on which our author heaps his foul slanders. Speaking of the remote consequences of the Toleration Act, he observes:"It may be sufficient to notice one, the debasement of the christian ministry by lay-preaching: a thing unexampled in every state in Europe except ours; and in every age, here, as well as elsewhere, till the usurpation of Cromwell ; when other foul births this monster

among was produced!" These remarks are followed by others of a similar nature, in which the author vents his spite against a class of christian teachers, guilty of that unpardonable offence in the eyes of priests, and men of a priestly disposition of all sects and parties, namely, the offence of preaching the gospel, more particularly to the poor, without being paid for their labours! Our limits will not permit us to enter into the inquiry as to the practice of "other states" on this point; nor to contrast the motives, the labours, and the merits of "lay-preach'ers" with those of the priests of the church of England. These topics present a wide field for reflection; but we cannot refrain from expressing our astonishment, that the writer should discover such ignorance of, the New Testament, and of ecclesiastical history, as to assert so palpable an untruth. The purest records inform us, that the apostles were lay preachers;" the apostle Paul, in particular, frequently, and in the most impressive language, re

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minds the ministers of the christian church of his conduct as a lay "preacher, and exhorts them to follow his example: the great majority of the bishops or pastors of the primitive churches were " lay "preachers;" and it was not till the Emperor CONSTANTINE usurped that authority in the christian church which solely belonged to her great head JESUS CHRIST, and totally corrupted christianity by turning it into a system of statecraft and priestcraft united, that the christian ministry was completly" debased," as one of the most eminent " "preachers" had predicted, by a mob of hirelings, grievous wolves, entering into the fold, not sparing the flock;† and the primitive, the apostolic, and useful practice of "lay preaching," was brought into disrepute;-that unfortunate period, when “ among "other foul births, a monster was "produced," christened by kings and priests, ALLIANCE BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE ;—a 66 monster," whose ravages have desolated every part of Christendom, and whose murders have drenched the church universal in blood!

As this is a subject of considerable importance to the civil and religious rights of our countrymen, and as it is very imperfectly understood by the generality of both churchmenand dissenters, we beg leave to select from the mass of evidence which runs through ecclesiastical history, one or two extracts from a modern writer, a clergyman of the church of England, (quoted on another subject by the author of Zeal without Innovation) to prove the correctness of our assertions respecting" lay "preaching."

"From the wise regulations injoined in the epistle to the Corinthians respect, ing the preachers in the church at Corinth, it appears that at different times,

* Acts xx. 28-36. 1. Thess. ii. 3-14.

2. Thess. iii. 7-14.

† Acts xx. 29.

"all one by one," might communicate, and receive edification. No church ruler appears to controul this libèrty, nor his licence asked: and I can see no scriptural reason, or injunction to hinder any man, with the approbation of the congregation, from speaking for their instruction. The exclusion of women from becoming public teachers, seems to admit the right of any man who is qualified and approved; and this qualification every christian brother should covet earnestly to obtain! Origin, when a layman thus preached, even before bishops in the third century..

The simplicity of gospel truth ill accords with a farrago of rites and ceremonies. Nothing could be more unadorned than the primitive worship. A plain man, chosen from among his fellows, in his common garb, stood up to speak, or sat down to read the scriptures, to as many as chose to assemble in the house appointed. . . . . . The holy scriptures were read in portions, and the presbyter, or bishop, or two or three of the congregation who were indued with prophetic or preaching talents, spoke a word of exhortation to the people, agreeably to the scriptures which had been read. Prayer from the heart without a prompter, followed.

"The whole was a spiritual not a formal service. We have yet [in the 2d. century] no trace of any form or established ritual: the mode of worship was left to the discretion of the several churches and its minister. The supper of the Lord closed the devotions of the day. A friendly meal served as an opportunity of ministring an act of charity to the poor, and of testifying their unity in one body, where all distinction of poor or rich were laid aside, and all with humble equality acknowledged themselves members of the living head, Christ, and of one another.... I can perceive as yet no part of the funds which were raised for the necessary expences attending public worship, the relief of the poor, &c. appropriated to pay the salaries of any minister of the sanctuary, unless as he came under the title of an itenerant evangelist; and being incapable of providing his own maintenance, and wholly occupied in the gospel work, was justly entitled as preaching the gospel to live by the gospel. I very much doubt if the bishop, or presbyters, or deacons, received at first any thing for their la

bours of love. I am persuaded they thought their work their best wages

"As pride, and worldly mindedness must go hand in hand, assumed pomp and dignity required a sort of maintenance very different from the state when the pastor wrought with his own hands to minister to his necessities: the idea of priesthood had yet scarcely entered into the christian sanctuary, as there remained no more sacrifice for sin, and but one high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ: but on the dissolution of the whole Jewish economy under Adrian, when the power of the associated clergy began to put forth its bud, the ambitious and designing suggested, what many of the rest received in their simplicity, that the succession to these honours now devolved upon them. Thus a new tribe arose compleatly separated from their brethren, of clergy distinct from laity; men sacred by office, exclusive of a divine call and real worth the altar indeed was not yet erected, nor the unbloody sacrifice of the eucharist perfected; but it approached by hasty strides, to add greater sanctity to the priesthood, and the not unpleasant adjunct of the divine right of TYTHES, attached to the divine right of episcopacy.

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"These abuses indeed grew not up at once. The remaining picty and purity of the true church, and multitudes of its primitive pastors, retarded the progress of worldly mindedness and ambition, till the union of church and state under CONSTANTINE pretty nearly compleated the worldly system. The consummation of abuse and wickedness in the mother of harlots, and all abominations_succeeded, and long has the earth (I can hardly call it the church) groaned under the anti-christian tyranny .. It is always observable that the forms of religion increase, just in proportion as the power of godliness is lost.*

The perusal of this plain, incontrovertible evidence produced by one of the sacred order, will, we hope, convince the author of "Zeal with

ters, and "lay preachers," and in duce him to retract his injurious

assertions.

We were about to notice other misrepresentations, which abound in the work before us; but we are relieved from our labour, by the writer of the following tract.

Zeal without Bigotry, or an Antidote to the Aspersions of the Author of Zeal without Innovation.p.88. Price

2s. 6d.

The author of this pamphlet reproves in energetic, and sometimes In elegant language the opinions, and spirit of a writer whose work he concludes must excite not only "the just indignation of the parties "assailed," but the " regret of the best informed of his own party." On the subject of true and false zeal, we have in the introductory chapter,

the following remarks.

"Had this writer's censures been restricted to the abuses existing in the national church, and his suggestions adapted to their reformation, he would have insured the approbation and good wishes of the pious and candid of every denomination. But forgetting, or refusing to admit, that zeal is not so much a virtue in itself, as the means of virtue, he has entered the lists of theological controversy under the banner of Bigotry, and shewn himself a true son of the church militant, whatever may be thought of his prospects with reference to the church triumphant. Wise and plous men will however distinguish between Hind, enthusiastic, grovelling, childish, bigoted, and tyrannical teal, and that which, descending from above, is liberal, just, and gentle. Confined to a narrow field of exercise, the former embraces the paltry interest of a party, while the latter knows no boundary but that of the habitable globe. Loud and desolating like the mountain torrent, the progress of false zeal is marked by devastation; but fed by no perennial spring, it soon discovers its impurities in the dry and filthy channel which it leaves behind. True zeal, on the contrary, sapphed by the fountain of christian benevolence, pursues its devious course With increasing affluence, until, having

VOL: VI.

refreshed and enamelled the landscape through which it flows; it iningles with the ocean of felicity."

The work is divided into five sec tions:-I. An examination of the alleged visible decline of attendance on public worship. II. Reflections on the increase of Separatism. III. On Toleration. IV. On lay preaching. V. An Apology for the Puritans.

In Section I. the author considers

the fact of the general desertiofi of Parochial churches, so bitterly com-, plained of by the author of " zeal "without innovation," as principally owing to a general want of " inte resting pulpit labours;" and inti mates, that a large proportion of the national church in the first inthe laity, without any hostility to stance, have sought amongst dissenin vain desired to hear delivered ters, those truths, which they have from the pulpits of the established church." On the nature of Tolera~' tion, our author makes the following observations.

"Justly suspecting that his illiberal reflections on the act of toleration might subject him to the suspicion of being unfriendly to religious liberty, the author of "Zeal without innovation" affetts to admire the moderation of the English government, which, he informs us, has at length acquired that mild spirit,which the act of toleration breathes. But he is free to own, that he derives no pleasure from seeing this act applied to a purpose for which it was never intended. It was intended to give felief to conscientious minds, and for that it does honour to the wisdom as well as humanity of the age in which it was passed.'

"By the confession of this gentleman, the act was originally intended to give relief to conscientious minds; the num ber of such minds having, however, unhappily increased to an alarining amount, he derives no pleasure from seeing the act applied to a purpose for which it was never intended.' Had he kindly informed us to how many persons, or what period of time, the act was destined to extend, his performance would not have been absolutely destitute of information.

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