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ed of God as a nation, in a degree proportioned to the penitence, as well as the faith and love and zeal for his honour, with which they will turn from their sins unto him?

In the present imperfect state we can little afford to relinquish or lose the advantage of any motive which can draw us more near to God. In the hearts of men who love their country, gratitude to the Divine Being for national blessings is not without this effect. In the weekly service of the sanctuary, we render our thanksgiving to him for such blessings, and also implore their continuance. So far as our hearts are thereby drawn out more effectually towards God, our patriotic regards contribute to nourish and strengthen our religious principle ;-and, so far as an established church serves to unite the hearts of a people with those of their rulers, in that bond of love and confidence which their common faith so naturally tends to consecrate,—it has more or less the effect of entailing on their country the continued blessing of Heaven.

Let me not however be misunderstood, in concluding this part of the argument.—I have never maintained, and am now as far as ever from maintaining, that an advancement of the interests of civil society is the great and primary purpose of the ministry of the Gospel. The Gospel addresses itself to every man individually, for the salvation of his own immortal soul; and there is no language too strong for representing the transcendent importance of this ob

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194 UTILITY OF ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS.

ject, compared to any temporal and worldly advantage. I have therefore considered, previously and more at large, the importance of a church-establishment for the separate advantage-for the spiritual and everlasting welfare of all and every individual to whom its ministrations are addressed. This is the anchor, and stronghold of my argument for the utility of such establishments. I trust that, in this view, their utility has been made manifest. But I trust, at the same time, that their tendency to promote the worldly interests of men as members of civil society, and in their corporate or national capacity, may be regarded as a salutary and blessed accommodation to the worldly circumstances in which we are placed.—And I cannot allow myself to doubt that, to every unprejudiced mind, the whole argument for their utility will come home with more effect in connection with the previous argument, from which it has appeared that such establishments are authorized by the revealed counsel and will of God.

SECTION II.

ON THE OBJECTIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN URGED

AGAINST THE UTILITY OF ECCLESIASTICAL ESTA

BLISHMENTS.

OUR argument for the utility of ecclesiastical establishments has been so conducted as to meet, in the various steps of its progress, a variety of intermediate objections. But the reader will not be surprised to find that, in this department, there are still objections which, if well founded, would more or less stand in the way of our general conclusion.

Some of the objections to which I replied, as applicable to the Divine authority for such establishments, had been so generally urged, and were at the same time so specious in their aspect, as to call for both a strict and deliberate investigation. Those to which I am now about to refer will not be found to have in all respects, the same claim to attention; but, as they have been recently urged with sufficient confidence, and may have made an impression on some minds, I shall advert to them in what seems to be their natural order.

I. It has been maintained that the ministers of religion under our church establishments are not qualified for their functions in respect of education.

Perhaps this objection would not have been very generally anticipated; but the language in which it has been lately urged is at least sufficiently explicit. "Many of the clergy of the establishments" (says a recent author)" receive no theological education at "all that deserves the name,”—and, again, “ Not a few "of their ministers"-(the ministers of establishments) "are little acquainted with the Scriptures, and, even "when meaning to be very evangelical, often err

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through sheer ignorance." ---- "Many tradesmen "and labourers are better educated in the Scriptures, "and better acquainted with their contents."*

Such assertions as these might have been overlooked, if they had not proceeded from one who seems to be upheld—perhaps not without reason—as the ablest and most accomplished of those who have lately presented themselves to public notice in Scotland, as adversaries of an ecclesiastical establishment.-For this author's partiality, indeed, to the education of his own church it is but fair to make much allowance,—even when he ventures to tell us that "the most complete "system of ministerial education, perhaps in Europe, "is that of the United Associate church in Scotland."† But when the education of the clergy of establish

* Comparison of Established and Dissenting Churches, pp. 34 and 185.

Ibid. p. 183.

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ments is attacked in such unmeasured terms, by one, who appears, himself, to have received a fair education, silence would be criminal.

The author, indeed, does not trace the alleged evil to any thing inherent in the principles of an establishment; but he must, at least, be understood as imputing it to a gross imperfection in the ecclesiastical laws by which establishments are governed.

Now, so far as concerns the Church of England, which seems to be, at least indirectly, included in the attack, I can speak but imperfectly, and shall limit myself to what I know. I incidentally know that, in the University of Oxford (and I presume in that of Cambridge also) theological education is not confined to those who are intended for the church; a competent knowledge of the doctrine and the evidences of the Christian faith is indispensable to all who apply for academical degrees ;-and much is it to be regretted that the laity of Scotland in the higher ranks of society have not the same advantage. It is a high distinction of a well-educated Englishman that nobody can suppose him ignorant of the great principles of religion; and, in such circumstances, it is not very natural to suppose that the education of the clergy of England is not duly provided for. But I will not allow myself to speak of what can be so much better explained by others. It is against the clergy of Scotland that the charge of theological ignorance, arising from a want of the requisite education, has been more directly laid; and, though I am not fond of the language

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