in all its forms, and unbelief in all its grades, which are crushing the souls of men to eternal perdition, that I cannot but stretch out the right hand of fellowship to the men who, amidst the forms of an established church, are seeking by the power of true religion to save men from the dreadful evils of eternal death. I wish, of course, by the progress of what I consider scriptural knowledge and religious conviction, to see the lesser evils removed, but to see the greater ones averted by these godly ministers of the Church of England, or of any other church, is and shall be for a rejoicing of which no man shall deprive me, and of which I will not willingly deprive myself.

I am arrived at that period of life when the shadows of evening are gathering round me, and when I am alternately looking back upon the course I have run, and forward to the account I must give, and like holy Baxter, I sometimes review my past sentiments and practices to compare with them my present ones; and if I know myself, I can truly say I have both a more entire conviction of the scriptural authority for nonconformity, and at the same time more charity for those who in this respect differ from me. Like the eminent Nonconformist, whom I have just mentioned, I can, with some little exception, say—“I am deeplier afflicted for the disagreement of Christians than I was when I was a younger Christian. Except the case of the infidel world, nothing is so sad and grievous to my thoughts as the case of the divided churches. And, therefore, I am more deeply sensible of the sinfulness of those prelates and pastors of churches who are the principal causes of these divisions. O, how many millions of souls are kept by them in ignorance and ungodliness, and deluded. by faction as if it were true religion. How is the con

version of infidels hindered by them, and Christ and religion heinously dishonoured."

"I do not lay so much stress upon the external modes and forms of worship as many young professors do. I have suspected myself, as perhaps the reader may do, that this is from a cooling down and declining from my former zeal, (though the truth is, I never much complied with men of that mind :) but I find that judgment and charity are the causes of it, as far as I am able to discover. I cannot be so narrow in my principles of church communion as many are that are so much for a liturgy, or so much against it; so much for ceremonies, or so much against them; that they can hold communion with no church that is not of their mind and way. If I were among the Greeks, the Lutherans, the Independents, yea, the Anabaptists, (that own no heresy, nor set themselves against charity and peace) though my most usual communion should be with that society which I thought most agreeable to the word of God, if I were free to choose, I cannot be of their opinion that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common Prayer Book, and that such forms are a selfinvented worship which God rejecteth: nor yet can I be of their mind that say the like of extemporary prayers."

Such, with some little difference, are the views which have been growing upon me of late, but which at the same time are far from producing the least indifference to truth; though perhaps some disinclination for controversy. With an entire conviction that God in his wise, and mighty, and irresistible providence, is signally fighting against the intrusion of the secular power into spiritual matters, and by political convulsion from without, and the growth of conviction among the episcopa

lians within, loosening the connexion between Church and State all over the world, I feel content to stand apart from all political confederations which are formed for the accomplishment of this object. Other eyes than those of Nonconformists are open to the evils arising from state connexion with the church, and other pens and tongues are proclaiming them, as will be evident from the following extract from a late number of The English Churchman," a thoroughly high church periodical.

"It will be said, perhaps, that in these modern days mere religious qualifications can hardly be looked for in a Bishop; that of course, in a political system, political motives must act, and that patronage must of necessity be governed by personal or party bias. No doubt. And the necessity affords the strongest possible argument against a connexion between the Church and the State, inasmuch as purity is much more important for a religious institution than wealth. It is not essential for any church that her bishop should live in a palace, sit on a throne, and have several thousands a year; but it is absolutely requisite that her rulers should be pre-eminently religious men. This is the main point; but so far is the establishment from affording security in this respect that it operates directly the contrary way. The choice of bishops is notoriously influenced either by motives of favouritism, or, which is no better, by a desire to provide safe, quiet, easy men, who shall make no disturbance, and give no trouble to the government. The chief recommendations to an Apostolical successorship are family interest and harmlessness. The church seems to be regarded by the State as an animal sufficiently well managed if she can. be kept from doing mischief. That she has a high mis

sion to spiritualize and regenerate the world, or that the character of her chiefs must tend either greatly to advance, or ruinously to mar her work, it never seems to enter into the imagination of a premier to conceive. How should it? His position, his habits, his aims, the principles on which he himself is chosen, and the persons whose interests he must consult, render him the most unfit person in the world to exercise overseership in the church. A pope, holding the reigns of secular government, is not a stranger anomaly than a bishopmaking premier. Happily the Papacy is expiring; may we not hope that English Erastianism will ere long come to an end.

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Let the churchmen of Norfolk look to it, for the question is especially their own. They have just been deprived by death of their spiritual leader, and they are looking for a successor to whom? To the church? To any appropriate authority? No: but to a man, who, so far as religion is concerned, is but the accident of an accident, to a man who may be Lord John Russell to-day, Sir R. Peel to-morrow, and nobody knows who— an infidel, a Dissenter, a Catholic, or a Jew, the day following; at any rate to a secular personage, chosen only for secular reasons. Is this right? Is this good for the church, for churchmen, or for Christianity? Are they to be called enemies of the Church of England who decry such a system?" When churchmen write thus, they furnish, not only an apology for dissenters, but a defence of their principles.

If there are any who say that for a consummation so dovoutly to be wished as the dissolution of the union, the public mind must be prepared by a diffusion of light, I quarrel not with them, and provided they do but speak the truth in love, I leave them to pursue their

vocation in spreading their principles by any confederations they please to form; I can only say for myself that I feel my calling to be, to pursue the same object in a more quiet manner, and to say to both parties

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice;" "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace;" and "forbearing one another in love."

I have thus exhibited the various bodies of Protestant Nonconformists which exist in this town, and to which by searching further and penetrating into obscure retreats, others perhaps might be added. To some eyes such a scene presents nothing but unmixed evil, and to none can it present unmixed good. All diversities of

creeds are, in some respects, evil in themselves, and in some directions, and to a considerable extent, are evil

in their consequences. Truth is uniform, but error multiform. Error is undoubtedly evil, and must partake, though in some cases in an inappreciable quantity, of moral obliquity. All these various opinions, of which the congregations that hold them are the embodiment and visible expression, inasmuch as they are opposed to each other, cannot all be true, and, in as far as they are false, are evil; and they also no doubt tend to produce some degree of strife and alienation, and to engender suspicion and distrust where they do not actually foster bigotry and ill will. Controversy must of necessity rise out of diversity. The odium theologicum, though by no means so bitter or so virulent as some imagine, and more represent, does exist as the offspring of diverse sentiment. Yet notwithstanding all this, diversity is better in itself, marks a better state of things, and is followed with better consequences, than that hollow and